Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

As a signatory to this, the point has been well aired but do we have planning and development that is mechanical or do we have planning and development that is holistic? That is really what is at stake here. If planning and development is mechanical and economically deterministic, it treats people like units and robots and the result is probably best summed up in Edvard Munch's famous painting The Scream where people are deeply alienated from their surroundings. That is a real phenomenon. In fact, if anything it seems to be more evident these days or maybe we are more aware of it, I do not know. When you talk to young people, that sense of alienation impacting on their mental health and sense of well-being is very widespread. A mindset change is necessary for us and everybody at all levels of society to move away from the narrowly deterministic and mechanical to the holistic. If the Minister has already acknowledged that this needs to be included in the national planning framework, surely it is logical that this wording and awareness would then work its way through the planning and development process entire at all levels. I think it is logical that if we put it in one place, it should follow through to all parts of the planning and development process, from the macro to the micro.