Michael Colreavy (Sligo-North Leitrim, Sinn Fein)

One thing is beyond debate and beyond doubt when we consider the Irish planning and development process. We went through a decade of madness, badness or both in planning and development. That madness or badness has brought the nation to its knees. I welcome tonight's Private Members' motion. It is extremely hypocritical that it was moved by Fianna Fáil given that the ink is not yet dry on the Mahon tribunal report, outlining the relationship between members of Fianna Fáil and property developers. However, that should not detract from the central issue we are debating. As a member of Leitrim County Council I was among the first people to stand up and ask a very simple question: "Who will live in all these houses and apartments that are being built around us?" No new jobs or major industries were coming in, but houses were being built with nobody to live in them. At the time I was vilified and ridiculed, and accused of being anti-development because I asked that very simple question. If I speak to developers now, they acknowledge that if they knew then what they know now, they would have studied the question much more closely.

Throughout Sligo and Leitrim the scars of these bad planning decisions remain. It is not just about numbers because people are living in unfinished or half-occupied estates with their homes in negative equity and still heading south with mortgages for over-priced houses that they cannot afford to repay. The Government's decision in June 2011 to terminate the independent inquiry into planning irregularities in seven local authorities shows that very little has changed.

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