Dee Ryan (Fianna Fail)

I thank the Minister of State. I acknowledge the fine work that is being done to facilitate a greater number of homes to be developed around the country, and congratulations on the publication of the new housing plan. We look forward to supporting the Minister of State and the Minister, Deputy Browne, in the coming years, and achieving those goals that we have set in government.

The proposals that I have outlined today are practical small tweaks that can be made in this area of rural housing. I will send them to the Minister of State and the Department for consideration. I am delighted to hear that updated planning guidelines will be brought forward by the end of next year.

We must accept that more new homes need to be built in rural Ireland. As the Minister of State rightly outlined, about 5,000 of these houses are built per annum at present. In my experience of dealing with people who wish to build, there is a much greater demand and we could facilitate, within reason, more new homes to be built in rural Ireland.