The Taoiseach spoke earlier on housing. He spoke specifically about those who want to build their own houses and to develop their own properties. He was talking about regional development within rural Ireland. Is the Taoiseach aware that it is becoming increasingly difficult for people to obtain planning for one-off houses throughout the country? All over rural Ireland, this is becoming an issue. Local authorities are citing regulations coming down from the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government that are more stringent and stricter. The local authorities have to put these regulations in place, making it more difficult for people, as the Taoiseach stated in his earlier comments, who want to build their own houses in their local communities and have proper regional development. These families, who build predominantly in rural areas, go on to be active members of their community and add to and enhance their communities. The Taoiseach needs to take a serious look at this.

On the same issue, if anybody wants to get planning permission in County Leitrim now, he or she has to spend €50,000 to deal with the effluent treatment. What will happen is rural areas will shut down. It is bad enough as it is, with depopulation and everything else, but it is a crazy situation to expect somebody to fork out €50,000 to facilitate a septic tank. That is what is going on. It is outrageous that this can be allowed to happen. The Government would be as well to put a gate at Carrick-on-Shannon because people will not be able to build or survive in that area.

One point to note at the outset is that the Rebuilding Ireland home loan announced yesterday applies to self-build as well and it will be useful to those who are looking to build homes around the country.

One of the key goals we are trying to achieve with the national planning framework which we are finalising at present is clarifying planning issues around the country. The ambition of Rebuilding Ireland, and in terms of our population projections on where people will live out to 2040, is that 50% of the growth would come from cities and large urban centres but 50% of the growth would come from everywhere else. That means that we must ensure that we have a proper planning framework in place for local authorities to ensure that we can open up doors to parts of the country that were thought to be previously closed. Of course, this is not only about providing planning for homes. It is also about ensuring that we have the right planning for jobs and other key infrastructure.

One-off housing?

It is being looked at in the context of the national planning framework.