Mr. Brian Rushe:

I thank the Deputy for his questions. I will hit off one or two points before passing on to Ms Doyle. He made some valid points. The situation can be summed up in one word, which is inconsistency, whether in relation to the banking sector or the county councils. There are some major inconsistencies among the councils. I will again go back to an issue that we came up against in Kildare when I was chairman. We had someone who was looking for planning permission to build on family land. The person was coming home to the area and wanted to come out onto the existing driveway to get out onto the main road but was refused planning permission on that basis. The person resubmitted the application and put in a new entrance onto the main road but was refused permission again because of the line of sight. That is what people are faced with. That person went through an awful time trying to get planning permission, trying to work things out and bent over backwards for the council. That is a major inconsistency, which made no sense. It was just because words on paper were interpreted in a certain way.

One of the other major inconsistencies the Deputy did not mention relates to development levies. This is particularly problematic in Border counties.