Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We should have very clear guidelines on rural housing, and they should be issued quickly. We will bring the point raised by the Senator to the relevant Ministers. It is a very important one. There are cases where there are three or four generations of a family in one location. They want to build there and the children want to build there. Often, it is difficult for applicants to establish a local need. The local need is that they want to live there and they are going to live there. They are not building a house as part of some fanciful exercise. It is a very serious commitment and they should be supported in that. I take issue with the Senator mildly in respect of one point. I know he will not have a problem with it, but I dispute his thesis that rural Ireland is in bad shape. Actually, rural Ireland is thriving at the moment. There are a number of factors working-----