Existing buildings should be repurposed and redeveloped as much as possible, rather than demolishing and developing new structures. The embodied carbon footprint of existing buildings must be maintained, and this should be calculated as part of planning applications that propose any demolition. Those that discard large amounts of embodied carbon should not be granted.
To encourage a more active and healthy lifestyle, we must remove car dependency and car dominance from our towns. The same should be done even between our towns. The likes of Maynooth, Leixlip and Celbridge are only a few kilometres apart, and should have dedicated segregated cycle facilities between them. The M4 is there for motor traffic access, we should encourage and provide for active travel on all other routes.
Put in more one-way systems for motor traffic in towns and villages, and use the freed up space to create segregated two-cycle lanes. People have rediscovered their local area during Covid 5k restrictions, so let's help them keep going.