Luke Flanagan (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent)
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I thank the Minister of State for her presentation. The issue of training seems to arise repeatedly. I am sure anybody who has been a member of a local authority will be aware that there is training provided, but the problem is the quality of it. When I first became a member of the local authority, I did not know a great deal about planning but I went to one planning conference and discovered I knew a great deal more than those conducting the conference. Is there any way to guarantee it will be legitimate, proper and good quality training, not merely a trip to the Ring of Kerry?

Will the matters I came across as a county councillor happen again? If one is a building developer and a county councillor, the first problem is how one defines who is a building developer. I have my definition of it. In my experience, those who could be defined as building developers have been chairmen of planning strategic policy committees. In one situation when the development plan was being voted on, two of the three councillors in an area were developers or, depending on the results they came up with at the end of it, destroyers. What will be done to prevent that happening again?

The Minister of State may be aware that in a local authority there are councillors to whom one would go to get planning and there are councillors to whom one would go to guarantee one would not get it. By the end of my term on the local authority, it was quite clear - I had to tell constituents this - that a person would have to keep away from me if he or she wanted to get planning because they would not give it to him or her. As a county councillor, I took up the role of enforcer, reporter, complainer and pointing out if something went wrong. As to my reward, even my brother said they would not go to me for planning but they knew to whom they would go. Whatever system the Government puts in place, and while it is a difficult matter, it should ensure these practices are not repeated. I found it frustrating that one could get punished for doing right. That is my tuppence worth.