Sinn Féin spokesperson on Rural Affairs, Community Development and the Gaeltacht, Conor D. McGuinness TD, has criticised the Government’s draft National Planning Framework for failing to provide a pathway to meet the basic needs of rural communities.
Speaking in the Dáil during the debate on the revised draft framework, Deputy McGuinness said:
“This is not a delivery plan. It is not a roadmap for sustainable, balanced rural development. It’s a vague document that gestures at ambition but offers nothing new – no urgency, no binding targets, and no shift in how decisions are made or funding allocated.”
Deputy McGuinness condemned the continuing neglect of rural housing by Government, calling the current system “restrictive, inflexible and dogmatic.”
“Planning policy should support, not block, people who want to live and raise families in the communities they come from. If a young couple wants to build a home in their parish, near their family or on their own land, they should be supported – not shut out by bureaucracy or arbitrary rules. That means serviced sites, access to affordable sites, and actual delivery of affordable and social housing in rural towns and villages. That should be central to any national planning framework.”
“We see the impact of this failures starkly in much of my own constituency – from Ardmore to Dunmore East, and in towns and villages throughout the county.
He went on to highlight the wider impact of poor rural planning:
“Whether it’s the post office, the GP, the local Garda station or a school bus route – families in rural Ireland are being locked out of basic public services. These are not luxuries. They are essential. The housing crisis is a national crisis, but it plays out differently in rural communities where homes, jobs and services are all harder to access. This plan does not respond to that reality.”
Deputy McGuinness also said the planning framework continues to centralise power at national level, leaving communities out of the decision-making process:
“Rural communities know their needs – they don’t need to be managed from Dublin 2. A fair planning system would trust communities, empower them, and deliver for them. This document does not do that.”
He concluded:
“Sinn Féin is clear: we need a new approach – one that backs rural communities to thrive, rather than treating them as an afterthought. We need to deliver homes, services and public investment in rural Ireland. This framework does not provide the tools to do that.”
Conor D. McGuinness TD 