Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will follow up on the question that Deputy O'Callaghan has put to the Minister of State. Ten years ago, or maybe more, a new prison was built in The Glen in Cork, right next to the old prison. Cork City Council at the time brought out an excellent report about why this prison should have not been located there but because it was built under special legislation on prisons, it went completely against the community and the council's recommendation, and the prison was built. If we look at that example of how the planning system, local community and local authority were overridden, the Minister at the time was able to do that just with a prison. Is that going to be expanded so that a Minister could do that for anything? Deputy O'Callaghan made the point about a road and Deputy Ó Broin made the point about a shopping centre. I was in The Glen last weekend and that prison overshadows the whole of Cork city. It is right at the peak and it overshadows the people in The Glen. The only way they could have taken that to a judicial review was if they had €125,000 and that community could not put €125,000 together. Any chance they had of justice was lost because the local authority was not listened to, the people were not listened to and they did not have the deep pockets to fight Government. That was not right.