I am glad to get the opportunity to raise with the Taoiseach problems that exist for people wishing to obtain planning - the basic right to put a roof over their heads - and the guidelines that planners have to recognise that allow young people to get planning permission.

I am also glad to get the opportunity to highlight the problem that we have with one or two serial objectors in Kerry. Even though Kerry County Council grants permission, this person appeals it to An Bord Pleanála and it always seems to happen that the planning permission is refused then. In Tomies, the late Seán Sweeney - I will name him because he went on television and went public about it - fought tooth and nail to get planning permission for his son. It was granted by Kerry County Council on two or three occasions and it was objected to and refused. That man has not yet got planning. A man from Muckross got permission from Kerry County Council and this serial objector objected. He was working 6 km away in Liebherr's and he made that objection. He lost his planning permission.

Another McCarthy family in Lauragh Upper had 365 acres, all in special areas of conservation, SAC, but Kerry County Council, in its wisdom, granted permission. An Taisce, someone 72 miles away, appealed this decision, the decision was lost and they never got permission. The young fellow, who wanted to live beside his mother after his father dying, was denied that right. Lauragh school is in trouble. Does the Taoiseach see that this rural settlement policy is denying several people? For a couple from Glencar - they are only 2 miles from Killorglin and 2 miles from Beaufort - it was a massive struggle to get permission in Beaufort even though they were only 2 miles away from there.

The Government tells us to build in the villages and the towns but with places like Kilcummin, there is no sewage treatment plan. You will not get permission in Glenbeigh, Abbeydorney or Brosna and yet the places are practically desolated. Curra was promised in 1986. For former Deputy Tom Fleming and me, Scartaglin was number three on the list; now it is on no list. Half of the massive town of Castleisland is on septic tanks. However, to say that people should move into towns is wrong too because the State does not have the infrastructure there.

We must appreciate young couples who go to the trouble of building a house for themselves as we know the cost and the trouble it takes to build social houses for people who cannot afford to build a house for themselves. In many instances, the trouble is to get planning. We must do something about it.

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. At one level, I can understand the Deputy's point in terms of rural life, rural populations and young people on their own land not being in a position to get permission. At that level, one can empathise, particularly given the cost of housing today, that they are finding it very difficult to secure planning permissions. On the other hand, the advice to locate in villages is sound advice too. It is sound advice because it is close to services.

Except that they are not there.

From the State's perspective, the best economic use of resources is to build up the infrastructure in the towns. Deputy Danny Healy-Rae's point is valid that where towns do not have sewage treatment facilities, that presents an additional difficulty.

We considered the EPA report yesterday, for example, at the climate change Cabinet sub-committee. We are down to approximately 20 clean rivers in the country. That is not the fault of housing. That could be the intensification of agriculture or whatever. However, we have gone from 500 rivers in pristine condition to 20. We all need to reflect on that as we all seek exemptions, changes etc. It is a very serious situation in terms of our groundwater and of the quality of our rivers. When one looks at the thousands of septic tanks all over the country, one begins to see that we have a lot of work to do to clean up our rivers and to improve significantly the quality of our waters.

The Government intends to further increase the allocation of funding to Irish Water to make sure, as priority, that where any town is discharging raw sewage into rivers or harbours, we will work to ensure they have a sewage treatment plant in place. There are approximately 35 such locations at the moment. That should be an immediate priority. This will enable us to ensure that people find it easier to live in villages and towns across rural Ireland. That is something I am very committed to doing because we cannot hang around too much longer with raw sewage being discharged into rivers and harbours. This is a very challenging and serious issue. I take the Deputy's point, in some instances, but we have a real problem in terms of pollution, the environment more generally and the quality of our water supplies.

We have a problem in that many people cannot get planning permission because of designations. In a case in Belgium seven or eight years ago, the judge decided it was wrong to have designations blocking people from getting planning permission. That judgment is there and it will be contested at some stage by someone. The Government is leaving itself open to that. There is a problem in weaker rural areas. In the case of my own road from Loo Bridge to Morley's Bridge, which is 4 or 5 miles long, there were 16 or 17 families living there but now one cannot get permission to build. In the case of one of those families, there were 16 reared in a cottage on an acre. That is the gospel truth. One cannot get permission to build along that road now because it is part of a designated disadvantaged area, whereas the other side of the road is stronger. It is in the Government guidelines that the designated disadvantaged areas have to be taken together. That is what is wrong. There are another couple of townlands up the Shandrum Road where there were 24 families living. People cannot get planning permission in those places and no one can come in and build there. A lot of people are being told that they can work from home but it is not possible to get planning permission for sites in those places.

I thank the Deputy.

The virus has shown that it is safer to work and live in rural areas than in flats or apartments in this city or other cities. The Government has been promising for four or five years to bring in new guidelines. Where are those guidelines?

The Deputy should be careful what he prays for.

I am asking the Taoiseach to deal with these issues in rural Ireland and give people a chance to live there.

I have only been in office for six months. I will engage with the Minister to see where those guidelines are. My own view is that where there has been a history of habitation, there should be continued facilitation of habitation. The Deputy talked about 16 people living on one road.

There were 16 in one house.

I have walked the boreens and seen dilapidated houses, with bigger and better houses built adjacent to them. I often wonder why a dilapidated house was not retained. Someone should take those houses over, even if it is the county council, and get them back into a reasonable state for somebody to live in. I am into practical solutions but the highest environmental standards have to be attached. I am not, by nature, in favour of serial objectors. I do not like that trend and phenomenon. We have seen in forestry, for example, how it has led to terrible damage to an important industry and endangered jobs and construction output. However, I have to be honest and state that I favour the idea of concentrating development in villages and towns.

I am sorry to hear that.

That makes sense. To take up the Deputy's point, we need to build infrastructure in towns, in terms of sewage treatment plants and other facilities, that would render the situation a more enjoyable one.

Can the Taoiseach do anything about the serial objectors?

We cannot talk about it now as we have run out of time.

We live in a democracy.

It does not seem like that down below in Kerry.

I kind of think it does somehow.

We have them all over the country.

I would say they have their own version of democracy in Kerry.