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Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 21 Oct 2003

Vol. 572 No. 6

Priority Questions. - National Spatial Strategy.

Dan Boyle

Ceist:

75 Mr. Boyle asked the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs if he will define the unique settlement pattern found in rural Ireland; and the way in which Government policies are helping to define this pattern as stated in a recent speech made in Killarney. [24193/03]

My Department is committed to maintaining the maximum number of people in rural areas and to strengthening rural communities economically, socially and culturally. As I stated in Killarney recently, we have in our country a unique settlement pattern based around the baile fearann, or townland, and the parish. Villages and towns obviously also play a role in rural areas, but the traditional settlement pattern gave a cohesiveness to society that is vital for the economic and social well-being of our people. We need balanced spatial development, and part of this is the development of our countryside, as outlined in the national spatial strategy.

As pointed out in the strategy, in many rural areas the combination of a high dependency on a changing agricultural base, a scarcity of employment opportunities and resultant out-migration has weakened their demographic, economic, social and physical structure. In my statement welcoming the publication of the strategy last November, I said it sets down clear markers for the way ahead in rural development. The strategy addresses many of my concerns in relation to such issues as rural housing, services and cultural identity. The rural settlement policy framework contained in the NSS, which represents overall Government policy on rural housing, aims to sustain and renew rural communities. In this way it aims to ensure that key assets in rural areas are protected to support quality of life and also that rural settlement policies are responsive to the differing local circumstances in different areas.

The Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government is currently at an advanced stage in preparing rural housing guidelines and it is subsequently proposed to issue these as a public consultation document before the end of the year. The guidelines will also be aimed, through the operation of the planning system, at securing greater public awareness of the issues involved in rural settlement policies and greater consensus on the practical implementation of those policies.

Government policy on rural development is set out in the White Paper published in 1999. The policy agenda is a broad one, involving the remit of many of my colleagues in Government and their related agencies. It covers such issues as agriculture, infrastructure, transport, environment, health, education and enterprise and the challenge is to ensure coherence in pursuing our rural development objectives.

Given the lapse of time and other significant developments since its publication, I am considering initiating a review of the White Paper.

I thank the Minister for his reply. Given that the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government is preparing guidelines on rural housing does the Minister not see a role for his Department in preparing similar criteria for sustainable rural communities? Does he think that the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs could play a positive role if it were to identify such criteria? I suggest that those criteria might involve maintaining critical mass in towns and villages, and services such as schools, Garda stations and post offices. As the Department has responsibility for community affairs, surely it should emphasise this area.

On the ongoing debate about rural settlement patterns and the effects of one-off housing, does the Department have a role in presenting useful statistics and information in order that this debate can be conducted in a proper context? For instance, of the 54,000 houses built last year, at least 30% were one-off housing. If it is the case that there are inconsistent planning departments in each local authority area, does the Department have a role in putting forward national criteria to make them more consistent? They could establish whether people in family situations or people who are prepared to work in the agricultural sector are not getting planning permission and decide whether clauses should be put in place to the effect that such developments could not be sold on for a set period. In that way, these devel opments would not be seen as a future commercial gain but would be an investment in the local community.

The Deputy has asked several questions and I will try in the brief time available to me to answer them as succinctly as possible. As was the case with the spatial strategy, my Department will be involved with the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government in drawing up the rural housing guidelines. The second issue is one about which there is a grave misconception. Of course we want to keep the schools, post offices and services in our towns and villages but if we depopulate the countryside, we will not have children for the schools or customers for the post offices. Those who think, for example, that the majority of the children who go to school in Cornamona, where I live, or Clonbur come from the village of Cornamona, are mistaken about the settlement pattern we are discussing. Most of the children attending rural national schools in villages and towns – some schools are located in the towns while others, such as Scoil an tSeana-Phobail, are away out in the country – come from the whole parish, the half parish or the school catchment area. Therefore, one cannot strengthen rural towns and villages if one weakens the baillte fearainn that make up the area.

The third point is that there must be a creative tension between the absolute requirement for people to adhere to national policies and the freedom within national policies for local authorities to have autonomy on certain issues. The Green Party has preached for many years about the need for local autonomy. We have already laid down the broad parameters in the national spatial strategy. We will build on that in the national rural housing guidelines but, within those parameters, we must afford the freedom to the local authorities to make the decisions on their own areas. To do otherwise would be to undermine everything for which the Green Party stands.

I further suggest to the Minister that in terms of future planning and the role his Department can play, there is a possibility of being a lead Department in terms of many of these ideas. His Department could give a lead to the Department of Transport on the absence of transport in many of these communities; to the Department of Health and Children on the basis that mental health is affected by degrees of rural isolation and no one seems to be measuring this; and, to the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform in terms of the effects of crimes committed in isolated rural areas. All of these factors need to be taken into account in a coherent national strategy that the Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government will not be able to create in terms of guidelines on rural housing alone.

I agree but "lead" is a word one must use carefully. There is only one Government and there are different Departments but we must have one coherent policy. My Department works in conjunction with all of the other line Departments. It is a cross-cutting Department on an urban and a rural level but it cannot go off and devise policies on rural policing separate from those of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, although we do have an input into those policies. That is why a Cabinet Minister has direct responsibility for rural development as part of the senior ministry. We always feed into the system by holding bilateral meetings and so on. Perhaps the best example of how we have managed to exert influence would be to examine how Gaeltacht, island and CLÁR policies have been formed in consultation with other Departments but have spanned a range of activities. These include, for example, the very comprehensive transport policies that exist for islanders under the aegis of my Department.

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