Today in Nenagh, I had the privilege of announcing 307 new homes being built, on top of over 300 announced previously by Whitebox and Quantum homes. A total of more than 600 houses will be built. Why is that so important? Nenagh is effectively in the centre of the country and is one of the best towns in Ireland. Many of the people who are going into these homes are local people or people who desire to live there but who want to work from home or partially work from home through blended working. Nenagh is a commutable distance to Dublin, Shannon, Limerick or Galway one or two days a week but it is certainly not commutable five days a week. This Bill ensures those workers will have the opportunity to live among their community, to access all of the services they need, including childcare and schools, and to live among their families. It will enable them to be around their elderly parents, to spend more time at home and in their community, to go to the gym and not to spend three to six hours in their car. What this Bill does is create something the Government should be very interested in, namely, better spatial and regional planning by ensuring people can live in rural towns and regional areas. That is something this Government does not progress enough. This legislation is all about work-life balance. We work to live but we do not live to work. This Bill distinguishes my party, the Labour Party, from every other party in this House. This is what the Labour Party is all about. It is the party of workers, the party that ensures workers come first. Workers should come first but when it comes to this Government, they do not. This Bill will ensure workers have better lives, that many of the social issues, challenges and costs they face and the environmental issues we all face are dealt with and helped because this is the right thing to do. We talk a lot about workers and productivity but workers are far more productive when there is balance in their lives. As politicians, we should know this. We should know this as workers who come here every week. Why can we not practice what we believe in? This legislation will ensure better productivity. It will also ensure workers can live across this country and make a contribution, that they can have balanced working lives in Nenagh, Roscrea, Thurles and many other regional towns across Ireland.

Sentiment score: 0.30