Departmental Schemes
Dail Éireann — 2026-03-26
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Colm Burke (FG), Cork North-Central

In relation to new builds, a big challenge is sufficient land being set aside where a large amount of housing is being built. The planning authorities are falling down on this. I have seen this in the Glanmire area, for instance, where over 25,000 people live and a proper community centre has not been developed. Sarsfields GAA club has provided really good community support. Without it, there would not be a community facility in real terms. We need to do more forward planning on this issue. Likewise with Blarney, there are over 3,000 houses to go in there over the next few years. Land needs to be set aside now. There should be communication with local authorities to make sure that is part of the planning process. The Department cannot give the money if the land is not there to build the facilities on. Without those facilities, there is a huge gap in the community. When I was in Blackpool as chair in 1994 and 1995, I had 30 people employed under a community employment scheme in the community centre. There were huge challenges in employment there at the time. It made a huge contribution to the area.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-03-26/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:47+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-03-26