Danny Healy-Rae Condemns 2040 Plan to 'Hurt Rural Ireland'
Danny Healy-Rae criticised the 2040 plan in a parliamentary speech on 1 April 2021, arguing it will damage rural Ireland. He said the plan centralises growth in five cities, will restrict rural planning and will hurt farmers, self-employed people, businesses and householders.
Main allegations
He accused the government of pursuing a 2040 plan that prioritises five cities at the expense of rural towns and villages. He warned the plan would increase costs for people in rural Ireland through measures such as carbon taxes and restrictions that he said would threaten pubs, post offices and local banks.
Government messaging and funding concerns
He criticised mixed messages from ministers and experts and described the rollout as heavy on spin and light on funding. He said a recent rural plan presentation featured television-ready messaging but contained no actual funding for projects, and he singled out the chief whip’s orchestrated praise as part of that presentation.
Planning and infrastructure examples
He detailed failures in rural planning and infrastructure provision, citing multiple towns that still lack adequate sewage treatment - including Starmen, Scotty Glean, Kilcomen, Coror, Brasner, Beaufort and the Cymes, and Castle Island where his father made representations decades ago. He recounted a developer who applied for 55 houses, was told to increase density by 30% and then was prevented from building because the Kinmere treatment plant required upgrading.
Impact on rural housing and communities
He warned the regulator’s direction to concentrate development in the five cities would make it even harder for people in the countryside to obtain planning permission for one-off houses. He said young people who cannot get on local authority housing lists will find it increasingly difficult to build homes and argued the 2040 plan, as presented, will hurt rural communities more than ever.
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Thank you very much, last call. First of all, I want to say to Minister McGrath that anything that I have to say about the government or about the plan is no way personal to himself or to the other minister there. It's because this is a very, I'm glad to get the opportunity to talk on this 2040 plan as it's a very serious matter and it's going to affect many people in rural Ireland. And I suppose I will say that it is a lap to think that we're considering a plan for 20 years when this government don't actually know what's going to happen in four weeks' time or three weeks' time or I believe they don't really know what's going to happen next week. Because that's how they appear to the people with contradicting stories from one minister and another minister and from one professor and another professor and they all have a different story and it's hard for the people of rural Ireland to believe, or in any part of Ireland, to believe what's being said over the airwaves now. The plan is going to happen. The plan is going to hurt people in rural Ireland in a very negative way and it was brought in by Fine Gael and Fine Fáil back two or three years ago and now it has been continued by Fine Fáil and Fine Gael and the Greens. And this is all about boosting five cities to the detriment of rural places, rural Ireland, rural towns and villages, and self-employed people and business people, farmers, housewives, everyone that will have to pay a carbon tax and he's paying carbon tax is going to be affected more and worse so. He wants to stop us, he wants to stop us eating meat, he wants to stop us eating meat, he wants to close more of the rural pubs, he wants to close more post offices, he's letting the banks walk out of the towns even though they have a share in the banks and that's what's happening. If the churches close the next thing that they needn't be closed and we all know that, he wants to stop planning in rural areas and he's telling people, that they should and could work from home. But many of them don't have a home and they would have a home if they could get planning permission, but they can't. And the planning director is, regulator is told now to direct people to the five cities. That's what we read in the 2040 plan. This government is held bent and following the Green Party line so as to stay in power. It doesn't matter, it seems, if you are hurting the people in that way then. The grand people of rural Ireland, they have been regarded, they are being regarded, and if this plan is implemented, he will hurt them more. This plan will hurt them like they were never hurt before. The government continues with spin. We saw what they did this week with the rural, this massive rural plan for towns. There is no penny of money for any project. All the money is there, we are told. And Minister Humphries put up a very good show in the television and the news and whatever. But she, no matter how she was pressed, there was no penny of money for any project. And she still got away with it. And then we had the chief whip, the government chief whip come in here this morning. He orchestrated, he orchestrated a spin of praise and tarnished Leo. And took up the most of the slut for honouring members around the country with seven or eight finigale deputies praising Leo all morning. They are good at blathering and they are good at boasting and they are good at spin. But they are hurting the people, I can tell you that. And you see, as I understand it, Minister Roy seems to think that he is responsible for the environment that he has, that he is environment. But I will say to you, I will say to you Ministers, there is more to the environment than these carbon emissions. There are sewage treatment plants needed in several parts of our country. In fact, I will name out a few. I have Starmen, Scotty Glean, Kilcomen, has been waiting for 20 years, Coror has no treatment plant, Brasner, Beaufort and the Cymes you can get planning permission in these towns. But you will be told you will get the planning permission but you will have to wait till you are connected to the public, to a public treatment plant. Castle Island, I found documents above in the shed the other night where my father was making representations for an extinction to the Sur in Castle Island where they're all connected to septic tanks 40 years ago, 40 years ago, Minister, and I found the documents above in the whole shed in a box of his, and that's the God's gospel truth. And places like Brasne, a man looked for permission for four houses. He was cut down to two because he was knocking two old houses. He got the permission based on the two, but he won't get the other two till the treatment plant is brought up to scratch. And they knew of Kinmere. A man was a developer, applied for permission for 55 houses. And the planning regulator came back and said that he had enough density, that he'd had to add 30% more, which was 20 more houses. And when he did that and got that, the Kerry County Council told him that he couldn't build the houses at all until the Kinmere treatment plant was upgraded. So then, then we're at a quality development plant now in Kerry, and the regulator has us told, we can zone more land in Killarney, but we must keep the same acres of land all over the Killarney municipal area. So we'll have to cut down places like Guineve Gulle, we'll have to cut down places like Ratmoor, and it'll be the same in Chile in North Kerry, you can expand Chile, but the people out the country can't get planning permission. And they know the young fella and the people that, they're not able to get on a county council housing list or a local authority housing list, they want to build a house for themselves. And it is atrociously hard to get permission, but we believe because of this 2040 plan that that will be, that will be a way worse. And that will be way harder to get permission in rural areas. In other words, if you're zoning more land in one place, you'll have to de-zone it in the other place. That's totally unfair, because I don't know who this county regulator is, I don't know where he's from, or I don't believe that he knows any part of Kerry, or he's going by figures, and he doesn't understand the reality of the crooks and the things that the people have to continue with there. Farmers are told, they're being told more or less now, dairy farmers, that they'll have to cut down their numbers. And your companion in Cork, Central or South Central or wherever it is, Simon Coveney in 2013, told the farmers that they'd have to increase dairy, and that milk was the new white gold, and that the Chinese were going to drink more milk. And now he's telling us, and the government is telling us, we must cut down and reduce the number of cows in our yards. And to the same with the softer herd, after fellows breaking their backs, to put up the numbers, to try to live, and they were told by taggers, and they were told by the farming organisations, to build up their herds. And now they're being told, like, switch off the lights, switch out the light there, reduce your numbers, and at the same time, the scientists who gave the figures for the mean tan gas 15 years ago, and said that the farmers were destroying the environment. He's after meeting now, that he was 70% wrong. That very same scientist. And this is what we've been doing to poor farmers, that get up in the morning, they're working the seven days of the week, and there's 365 days of the year, and these fellows are being thrown around like this minister. And you have to understand that they're being wronged. Every man and woman that will be going on the road from here on will have to pay more carbon tax. Whether it is the young fella with the schnats in his nose going to work at half of six or seven o'clock in the morning, or whether it is the housewife taking the children to school, whether it is the employer employing people, or the business people with vans on the road, they are all going to suffer because of the carbon tax, and all because the government wants to stay in power, and they want to keep following what Eamon Ryan is telling us to do. And he taught us back in 2007 to buy diesel cars, and that they were the answer. And sure, yes, they are a durable car, and they are economic, and they are everything to people. But you know what does he want us to do? Get electric cars that have no durability, and they're not as carbon-friendly as he is saying they are, because he's been torn apart on that issue. The electric cars are not reliable, they're not durable, and they wouldn't carry you as far as Killarney for the wiper, and the radio, and the lights turned on at the one time, because they are all drawing out of the battery, and you'll be stuck with your tomb up and out on the side of the road asking for something to give you a lift. Deputy Healy Ray, I'd love to listen to you for a while longer, but I'm afraid your time is up. Iice Dominic of Munig of Munig of Munig of Munig of Munig of Munig of Munig of Munig of Munig of Tuned. Deputy Healy Ray, I move to the recovery of a new year. 와
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