Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I intend to move amendments Nos. 90, 94, 96, 103, 107 and 110. I do not propose to speak on any of them because they are self-explanatory. We will deal with them in due course. Colleagues will have read the amendments. I will leave it at that.

On the national planning statements, I take up where the Leader left off. I thank her for her ongoing support for one-off rural housing. She spoke in the House yesterday about the guidelines on such housing. Yes, we must get those guidelines right. However, they have been promised for seven years. I write repeatedly to the Department on this matter. I am continuously promised they will be published within weeks. Many colleagues will be aware of the Flemish decree and the challenges it presents for Ireland in regard to rural housing. We keep getting the same response. We have had parliamentary questions in the Dáil and Commencement matters in this House. We have had various Ministers in to discuss the issue. We keep being told the same story.

I reiterate that it is important we have the guidelines. I publish a press release approximately once a month calling for them. Let us publish the guidelines. They will then have to undergo a period of consultation. I believe in engagement and consultation. We have talked a lot about both. I do not understand the delay. Will the Minister of State explain it? He is involved in these issues locally and he is highly respected. He represents a rural constituency. He is familiar with the challenges outside Kilkenny city in the rural parts of Graiguenamanagh, Gowran and lots of other places. I know of people in those locations who cannot get planning permission to build on small landholdings. They want to live close to their elderly parents. This is an area the Minister of State represents, and represents well. We need fewer excuses. We need him to tell us today what he knows.

This issue feeds into the national planning statements. We certainly need a substantial section on rural housing in those statements. There are all sorts of suggestions. We are sometimes told to be careful what we wish for because the Green Party wants no progress in this area. I do not believe that to be the case. I simply do not know. The Minister of State is one of the Ministers with responsibility in this area. Will he elaborate on what is being done in regard to one-off rural housing? We are talking about proper planning and sustainable development. No one is against that. However, it is getting beyond a joke when we keep getting fobbed off on this issue.

I ask the Minister of State and the Government to publish the rural housing guidelines, which we have been told are ready, and put them out to consultation for a period over the summer. It is important that we have feedback. We know from the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association, ICMSA, the Irish Farmers Association, IFA, Macra na Feirme and lots of other organisations that represent farming and rural Ireland that they want to see those guidelines and to have an opportunity to comment on them. This is a significant issue. It is about having proper, sustainable development within our rural communities in order to sustain those communities. We talk about our commitment to rebuilding all over Ireland, north, south, east and west. We talk about balanced regional development. There are communities that want to grow and thrive or at least to survive. For many of them, it is about survival. Let us support them. I call for the publication of the draft guidelines and for them to be put out for a period of public consultation. We must try to make progress.

As I said, I will not address amendments Nos. 90, 94, 96, 103, 107 and 110. I will move them as we reach them.