Labhrás Ó Murchú (Fianna Fail)

Go raibh maith agat, a Leas-Chathaoirligh. I compliment the Minister on his pro-active role in bringing this process to a very successful conclusion. He set the tone of the debate by pointing out that we will all win if the guidelines are observed and implemented. As a co-founder of the Irish Rural Dwellers Association, I have been at the coalface of this process for many years. Initially, I found that there was an absolute intolerance on the part of some people to the voice of rural Ireland. We have now reached a stage where there is much more transparency on this issue. Some of the unproven myths put forward by those who oppose rural development have been put to rest.

Much of the debate has been based on very inadequate research. One of the main pieces of research put forward by those who do not favour rural development was based on a thesis by a graduate in a university. That is not right. We met with the managers' association and we pointed out that it was necessary for the managers to go back and carry out research and not to accept the newspeak of those opposed to rural development. We also met with the planning institute and I was pleasantly surprised at the reaction of the planners. When people engage in megaphone diplomacy, much misunderstanding arises, but when they sit across the table and put forward points in a reasonable manner, much common ground is achieved. The planning institute was prepared, with the Irish Rural Dwellers Association, to take a joint approach on issues surrounding rural development.

As we did not have informed debate, we found concepts in the planning code which were alien to Ireland and were not traditional. The Irish Rural Dwellers Association called the town planning agency in Britain to discover that agency had a special section dealing with planning in Ireland. We asked whether the agency had a section for other countries and were told that it did not. We asked why they had it for Ireland and were told it was because they did not regard Ireland as a separate jurisdiction. I will not go into the historical aspects of that, but it suggests to me that there has been an outside influence. I will not go into the university area, but it is worth looking at how the planning code was developed and built.

Many people have referred to our traditional concepts of rural housing such as the dispersed village, the baile fearainn and so on. These were taken for granted and were successful. If we look back in the historical sense we have an historical image of rural Ireland. My historical image, particularly of the west of Ireland and County Clare, was of small houses closed up and dilapidated. The story behind those was that the owners or their descendants were in the Bronx, Chicago, Manchester and London. For a long time people were saying rural Ireland was dead. People did not want to live there.

The wheel then came full turn and people wanted to live in rural Ireland. This indicated they not only had confidence in Ireland because of its progress, but confidence in rural Ireland. However, in many cases these people were met with a restrictive code of practice which was often contradictory. There was no justification for what was happening or for the arguments that came from organisations and people who, though small in number, were particularly vocal and had access to the airwaves and newspapers.

These people saw rural Ireland as a vast picnic area. They would come and enjoy it on a Sunday afternoon and then go back to urban Ireland and pontificate without engaging in proper debate. If they had focused more on urban planning, they might have served their people better. Everybody can see now that some of the outrages that have taken place in urban planning have presented us with some of the greatest difficulties with which the infrastructure of the country has had to contend. These people throw out glib comments and question who will pay for rural development, the Dublin Port tunnel, Luas, the DART and other infrastructure.

As I said on the Order of Business yesterday, I can still remember Monsignor Horan, go ndéanfaidh Dia trócaire ar a anam, defending the idea of an airport for Knock on the "Late Late Show". People of a political persuasion in Dublin actually went on the show and asked how we could possibly afford such an airport.