Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)

I move amendment No. 1:

To delete all words after "Dáil Éireann" and substitute the following:

"having established and resourced the Tribunal of Inquiry into Certain Planning Matters and Payments:

—notes the four interim reports of the Tribunal and awaits the findings of the Tribunal on matters currently under examination in public hearings, as well as any overarching recommendations for legislative amendment;

—notes the comprehensive ethics framework applicable to local government councillors and employees under the Local Government Act 2001, supported by separate Codes of Conduct issued under the Act in 2004;

—notes the importance attached by this Government to probity in public office generally, as reflected in the Standards in Public Office Act 2001, the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act 2001 and the Commissions of Investigation Act 2004;

—notes the detailed controls in relation to political donations and election spending enacted in the Electoral (Amendment) Act 1998, the Local Elections (Disclosure of Donations and Expenditure) Act 1999, and the Electoral (Amendment) Act 2001;

—notes the increased transparency of the planning system under the Planning and Development Act 2000;

—commends the Government's commitment to implementing the National Spatial Strategy (NSS) as the strategic national planning framework for achieving more balanced regional development, in the context of Ireland's rapidly changing economic and social circumstances, including population growth which will see the population increasing to around 5 million people by 2020;

—notes that the NSS is having an increasing influence on policies and programmes across a range of Government Departments and agencies, underscored by the Government's decision in July 2005 that the regional dimension of the next National Development Plan, now in preparation, will be broadly based on the NSS;

—notes that at regional level, a key policy bridge between national development priorities and local planning has been put in place with the adoption of Regional Planning Guidelines in each region to provide a strategic framework for local authority development plans and local area plans;

—notes that the priorities of the NSS and regional planning guidelines have been recognised in the Government's 10-year investment plan for transport, Transport 21;

—notes the success of Government policy in expanding the range of housing supports and facilitating record housing output in the face of unprecedented demand;

—notes the requirement upon planning authorities to prepare housing strategies providing for a mixture of house types and sizes to meet the needs of all categories of households, including provision of Part V social and affordable housing, and to zone adequate land to meet these projected housing needs;

—welcomes the record levels of funding being provided for social and affordable programmes, under which, for instance, 23,000 units of social housing will be commenced in 2006-2008;

—endorses the Government's new Housing Policy Framework 'Building Sustainable Communities', under which active land management strategies are being put in place to support an expanded programme of social housing delivery in mixed community settings; and

—notes the broad range of measures under which an element of the increased value of zoned and serviced land may be recovered, including, development levies, Part V provision of social and affordable housing or its equivalent value, capital gains tax and the Government's readiness, if necessary, to pursue other options in this regard."

While I have a great deal of time for Deputy Cuffe on a personal level, I am amazed at his brass neck in talking about amnesia. Frankly, I am stunned. I like him as a person, but when it comes to the hypocrisy stakes he takes the gold medal, or rather his friends over there on the Sinn Féin benches do so. No one in politics can be happy with what went on in Dublin County Council during those years. However, regardless of what went on in Dublin County Council, something infinitely more sinister was going on over on those benches.

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