Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise a planning matter. Everybody wants houses built but we must be very careful about building infrastructure to provide for families who move into any new houses. I recently had a meeting with residents in an area where six new building projects have either got planning or in the process of getting planning. This will add 400 houses to an area without any overall master plan for the area with respect to the provision of childcare facilities, recreational areas or sporting venues. I am seriously concerned that six projects can get planning permission in such circumstances. One scheme has approximately 170 houses and the other five will have 40 or 50 houses each. They are separate applications so there does not appear to be an overall strategy on how they should be dealt with.

We need to watch this very carefully. In the not too distant future, the area will have many young children and teenagers but there will not be any facilities where they can be involved with sport or recreational activities. It is important that when something like this happens, a local authority should say, "Hold on a second now, we need to put in a master plan before granting any further planning permission".We need the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government in here on the next occasion to deal with planning, especially in areas outside cities or in new towns that are being created. I am surprised that no overall plans have been produced for these projects. Originally, the projects were villages but they are now turning into towns. If all these projects go ahead, the area involved will be larger than four or five country towns in County Cork put together. We must invite the Minister in to talk about this matter and ensure that the planning criteria and all the boxes are ticked in terms of amenities for the people who move into the accommodation.