Ciarán Cannon (Fine Gael)

I too call for a debate on housing. The issue has been extensively covered by the media over the past several days. A rather excellent "Frontline" programme on Monday night revealed extensive research by NUI Maynooth which conclusively proves the existence of 300,000 unoccupied units in this country.

The programme included a strange contribution from the president of the Irish Planning Institute, who openly admitted the housing needs of our towns and villages for the next 30 years have already been zoned. He suggested that one of the reasons for unoccupied houses is the proliferation of one-off housing in rural Ireland, which he argued has taken from the vibrancy of towns and villages. Once again, this is a confirmation of the major bias that exists within the planning profession against one-off rural housing and the rural way of life.

A couple of years ago I attended a conference on this subject in Lahinch, County Clare. A Green Party councillor suggested that one-off housing and the dispersed rural way of life were not conducive to creating a vibrant community spirit, which is nonsense. The planning profession and the Green Party appear to see another opportunity to pursue their vendetta against the rural way of life. The fact that people continue to enjoy vibrant communities in rural areas is not the reason 300,000 houses remain unoccupied in ghost estates. To the Green Party, the planning profession and anyone else who wants to denigrate the rural way of life, I say hands off our rural housing and way of life.