Victor Boyhan demands meaningful public consultation on rural housing

First I want to welcome the Minister to the Senate today. I think it's a welcome move and I've considered all his points and I'm going to reference a few of them in a few minutes of the time I have. I do note that you talk about a public consultation and I think that's important, Minister. I did write to your department in relation to the public consultation in relation to the modular units at the back of houses that went to a period of public consultation. It has not been published on the website. I've had no support from the department in indicating or and I've been doing it on behalf of people who made submissions to the public consultation. So at the very outset I want to say that I again make a call. I haven't spoken to you directly, Minister, to be fair, but I've sent it in to the Minister and to the department and it is that if we're going to have a consultation, it has to be meaningful. It has to be transparent. We can't have a situation, if I make a submission to my county development plan, I'm listed as made a submission. It is listed in the appendix of the report on the consultation. So I'm asking again if we're having a consultation, it has to be genuine, it has to be open and it has to be transparent. I could ask or indeed I could do it myself, put in an FOI request and I've been advised that I would get that information. That is not the way we should be doing our business. If people are making submissions under a statutory or non-statutory public consultation initiated by your department or any other department, we need to see greater transparency in that. I suppose, Minister, I'm no stranger to making requests since the Flemish Decree in relation to this and I'm looking at letters here, one from Minister James Brown, dated the 24th of July 2025. Again, in relation to this, Dara O'Brien, again, I'm sorry, Minister James Brown, again in October of 2025. Dara O'Brien on the 30th of October 2024. Commencement matter from Ciarán, then Minister of Estate, Ciarán O'Donnell, the 22nd of March 2023. And, of course, the great Minister Peter Bourke, who actually was one of the greatest supporters of rural housing and Minister Bourke, who had over responsibility for planning and development and housing in your department, effectively, I think, doing more or less the same job that you are doing now, has said, and I quote, that people should have the right to live where they come from. And I very much welcome the approach. He was very supportive of the planning guidelines and expected progress. So, all along, we've been told that, for many years, they're imminent, these planning, they're all ready, they're drafted. Okay, there's been some changes. But look, less of a history lesson. We are where we are today and that I want to welcome, Minister. I want to reference a press release that I issued to Agriland back on the 13th of November 2025 and I say it was with some disappointment that there was no clarity in relation to the rural housing guidelines, which were expected would be addressed as part of the National Housing Policy. So, during when the National Housing Policy was published, there was great expectation. Indeed, a number of farm organisations said that they expected one-off rural housing objectives to be included in the National Housing Plan. That didn't happen. We do know when we looked down through the plan, we were told that there would be these national planning statements and they would address the issues into the future. So, we're now hearing in the second half of this year we'll have them. That's to be welcomed, Minister. Okay, things are a bit slow. So, clearly one-off housing on family-owned land and farm homesteads is something that people feel they have a right to do and you represent an urban and a rural constituency and you're very versed and capable in planning. I served on the Joint Ops Committee on Housing Planning and Local Government with you. So, I know your in-depth knowledge and commitment to this area. That's not in question. I want to say that to you, Minister. I acknowledge the enormous work and expertise you have in this area. But farmers in rural communities want to be able to have their children live on their land. They worked the soil. They sweat on their brow. They're very proud of their achievements to initially have a modest holding and expand it over generations into a more substantial holding. They want to celebrate the fruits of their labour and their work. The homestead, the family farm is at the very beat of the heart of their people and rightly so. And these are many of them are Indigenous people. You touched on the Gaeltacht and I welcome that. I think that's important. I think we need housing guidelines for the islands as well. They're unique. The Gaeltacht is unique. The Indigenous Irish speakers, indeed you have some in your own Gaeltacht in your own county of Waterford and I think that's an important recognition. I want to also acknowledge that now Deputy, was then Councillor Albert Dolan, did an awful lot of work, great advocate in Galway, as indeed was Councillor Gerald O'Donoghue. These were two councils in Galway County Council that kept the pressure on, kept asking the questions and indeed Albert Dolan is now a TD for the constituency and I see from parliamentary questions here he's been knocking at the door. So I think we all know the case but at the end of the day it's important and I think I want to go back on something to say that there was an article quite recently that said depopulation reaching crisis levels for the GAA in South Kerry. We have GAA clubs that are closing down. I've been speaking to bishops in the Catholic Church and indeed every other congregation. Churches are closing down. Now there are many reasons why they're closing down but at the very heart of our rural communities there are national schools closing down. The knock-on effect of depopulation in some places is impacting on trade, it's impacting on shops, it's impacting on agriculture. Certainly in Marks we see them closing down. Now there are many other reasons. I can't attribute it all to housing but it's a very substantial part of it. So what I'm saying Minister, I welcome the decision to at long last honour a commitment because it was at the Attorney General's office, it's at everyone else's office. I finish I suppose in saying that our rural future, rural development policy 2021 to 2025 is now out of date but they're working, it's cross-departmental and they're working on a new iteration of that plan and I want to pay tribute to Dara Cleary, indeed Heather Humphreys, the former Minister. It's a wonderful department, a lovely space to work in and they have really advocated on the housing but to overcome for the few months since this has lapsed there were some key objectives set down by our current Minister and of course one was measure 90 to update the rural housing guidelines for planning, authorities to address rural housing in the broader rural development context. So look what I'm saying Minister, I genuinely welcome what's happening. It took a hell of a long time, it's happening on your watch, I want to acknowledge that but I would say please let's whatever we do have a draft set of guidelines, let's put them out to meaningful consultation. I don't think it'd be right just to put out any sense of guidelines, we need to take an extra few weeks, months or two to get real input for the public consultation and the public feedback and let's commit, if you can do so, commit to publishing the feedback of that consultation because I think that is important also. Thank you. you