Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Sorry, Chair, for cutting across you. My frustration is that I received the response to the freedom of information request only yesterday, and it politely tells me to - you know the two words I would use. It hides behind legal threats again, and we have had that in committees before. That is why we amended the committee's powers a long time ago to give it the strength to bring people in and be held accountable. It should be borne in mind that this is taxpayers' money. I have it on the record, as I have said previously, that the individual in question admitted at the housing committee that Waterways Ireland is responsible for any unauthorised development. Despite this, the county councils keep coming back with references to Part 8 planning. You cannot involve a county council in a planning issue if those unauthorised developments never had planning in the first place and never applied for planning. It is technically a theft of land from Waterways Ireland, which is the custodian of this for all the citizens of the Thirty-two Counties. Then, when the crap hits the fan, Waterways Ireland blames the county council. This is on the record of a meeting of the housing committee a couple of weeks ago. I asked the individual in question if it was a land grab. I asked who was responsible if there was no planning and it was on Waterways Ireland land and the response was "Waterways Ireland". My frustration is that this has been going on for too long. I just want to know if we will bring Waterways Ireland in here in the near future. The county councils' responses are nearly all the same. They will use the excuse of Part 8 planning and it falling under that remit.