Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am very concerned about the whole process we are going through here tonight. It clearly does not demonstrate any genuine will to help people to get planning permission in rural areas. Indeed, there is little to suggest there is any help forthcoming for people who want to build in urban areas. With regard to the two points I highlighted previously, there are amendments that propose further restrictions on those looking for planning permission in rural areas. Despite this, the Government is talking about helping people to build houses and obtain planning permission. Therefore, its arguments contradict each other. "Hypocritical" is the word I use for this. The situation will remain. We have been promised for many years that there would be new planning guidelines but there is very little in this Bill to help people in rural areas. In fact, there is nothing to help them to get planning permission and build homes for themselves. I will keep highlighting the designation called strict urban-generated pressure. It was designed to stop people coming out of towns and villages and building out in the country but it actually prevents people from building next door to their parents, where they were born and reared and where they want to continue living. Now they are being forced into towns in which they cannot get planning permission because the treatment plants are not up to scratch. What is really happening is that they are emigrating from our shores.

See this speech in context