Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is very welcome. Planning is something with which we have had constant problems but one of the great examples of planning is the Luas line. As somebody asked me on the first day the Luas opened, is it not great that they have kept the old Harcourt Street line? Officials have been great down the years in that they recognised the line might have been needed again at some stage in the future.

That brings me to the issue of Galway and the Salmon Weir Bridge, the proposed footbridge from the Woodquay side to the National University of Ireland Galway, NUIG. We are looking at this issue and the Minister's officials met the Gluas very light rail committee in Galway. One of the issues is that any development should be done with a view to providing very light rail at some stage, hopefully in the not-too-distant future. This brings me to the planning for the bridge that is to cross the River Corrib. It would be the ideal route for any very light rail system coming from Oranmore and heading to Barna. It would link up Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, GMIT, University Hospital Galway, Merlin Park University Hospital and the whole lot. It would create a tremendous commute across the city.

I would be interested in whether the Minister is willing to take something like that on board at this stage, even though the project itself might not happen for years to come. I am mindful of what happened with Dundrum shopping centre and the cost to the Exchequer for that tiny piece of road that bypasses Dundrum. I forget how much it was at the time but it was the most expensive piece of real estate in Europe, if I am not mistaken.

That brings me to the matter of engaging with local representatives and the county councillors on the ground. We had a meeting here some time ago at which I raised the bus stop in Corrandulla, which is 10 km from Corrandulla. On the same route there was another bus stop that was 2.5 km from the local population density area. That suggests that planning is being done on maps rather than on the ground. We do not have a Google car driving around to see what is the ideal place for bus stops and the like.

The Minister brought up the issue of judicial reviews. I have no difficulty with people objecting to planning on reasonable grounds but surely to God they should be local and living in the area, not people from outside the jurisdiction and in some cases outside the country. That causes great problems. I am mindful of the loss of the data centre in Athenry in Galway. We could argue about data centres all day long and I would do that with the Minister quite happily but that was an industry that was coming to Athenry and it was lost and that created bad blood.

There was a very interesting piece on Pat Kenny's show yesterday about electric vehicle charging points around the country. Dungarvan has one and they were talking about the scenic routes around the Waterford coastline, which is very short on charging points. Visitors coming to the country will not be able to rent electric cars because of the lack of charging points. On the other side of it, I know a couple of people who have bought electric cars recently and all of them are horrified with the electricity bills they have received this last month. Maybe it is just a case of getting used to it but there seems to be a huge issue of electricity charges now with electric vehicles.

I walked to school as a child and frequently walked home for lunch and back to school in the afternoon. We would love to see that happening but we are living in a very different society now. It is not just an issue for the Department and its planning; it is a societal issue that will require the policing of safe routes to school for kids. I do not know how the Government will do that. It has been done in some continental countries where children can leave their homes and we know they will be safe the whole way to school and back but in the current environment in this country, I think there would be huge resistance to children being let out on their own, even at secondary school level. These are issues that the Minister and his Department will have to confront in the near future. I thank him for his time.