Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I go back to the point that a whole year has passed and there are no amendments. All we are doing is putting this off for a year, which is an issue. For the farmer who is actively farming his or her land and has gone to the local authority and asked for it to be de-zoned, has been rejected and has possibly even gone to An Bord Pleanála then and has been rejected, what will change for him or her?

The law stays the same. Genuinely, am I missing something here? The Taoiseach said this issue was going to be dealt with and others said the same. What am I missing? You can tell a farmer to knock his head against that wall and he might see a cow on the other side of it but he will not see the cow no matter how many times he knocks his head against it. Is something changing in respect of this law? I refer to farmers who have been rejected. The majority of farmers are rejected in terms of dezoning their land. I just do not get it. This has policy has been delayed many years and we are now in a situation where the Government is finishing its term office and the liability date has been kicked back another year. Is there something I am missing? Is the letter from the Minister, Deputy O’Brien, supposed to be the voilà moment? Senior planners will say, “We got a letter from the Minister, Deputy O’Brien, so forget about the strategy we have as a local authority." They considered applications and made determinations off it. I do not know what is different here.