Jerry Cowley (Mayo, Independent)

This is a good Bill with which I agree. The problem in our neck of the woods is the difficulty in getting started in the first place, never mind to complete what has is already constructed. I am a founding member of the Irish Rural Dwellers Association. I congratulate the Minister on his proposal to make the Irish Rural Dwellers Association a prescribed body so it can nominate people to An Bord Pleanála. I welcome that because An Bord Pleanála needs to reflect the rural point of view, even though it is an independent organisation. Recently, my wife was refused permission for a house by An Bord Pleanála.

There are those who have a vested interest in driving a wedge between environmentally aware groups such as the Green Party and rural dwellers. I spoke here on a debate on planning last year, after which I spoke to Deputy Sargent. The result of that was a meeting today between the Irish Rural Dwellers Association and the Green Party. There are those who are using the once good name of An Taisce in a witch-hunt against rural dwellers. An Taisce is being manipulated into objecting to certain developments in rural Ireland. In particular, it is being set upon like a mad dog on certain bodies for political reasons and is being used and is swallowing the bait, hook, line and sinker. It is being used by blow-ins, casual visitors who when they are lucky enough to get planning permission for a house which they visit twice a year, pull down the drawbridge on anyone else building in the area, including local people.

There is a terrible unfairness and a democratic deficit in the planning system. How is it that community not-for-profit developments are being rejected by planners in favour of totally commercial developments in the same area which enrich developers? Commercial housing developments are getting the go ahead with no objections from anyone. It is time to bring back fairness to the planning system. I have no crib against developers. The crib I have is against the bias towards the developer versus the community.

An Bord Pleanála is supposed to be independent. It is not independent of Government policy if one looks at its decision on the Ringaskiddy incinerator. That strikes fear into the people of Mayo in regard to Killala. An Bord Pleanála said it was bound by Government policy on incinerators. Am I missing something here or, is An Bord Pleanála not as independent as it would like to think?

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