Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

Perhaps this Bill represents an apology from the Government to the people for the repeated failures to complete the infrastructure that people have a right to expect as citizens of a modern EU country. For most people, infrastructure means roads, trains and buses. There are metros in most European cities of comparable size to Dublin and Cork. A decent bus service should be available in cities and towns. Many Members have travelled in Europe and will have been staggered by the difference between public transport infrastructure there and in Ireland. This Government has had nine years to achieve success on this matter but is still floundering. Many Ministers are jaded and exhausted from holding office for so long. Their efforts to meet the infrastructure gap have been disappointing.

Planning is not an easy matter, particularly if one is in a growth area. I began my political life on the former Dublin County Council at a time when the area was experiencing the kind of expansion only experienced by other towns and cities around the country in the past seven years. Dublin county was the key area for expansion. Three new towns were designated for the area around Tallaght, Blanchardstown and Lucan 30 years ago. Swords grew as a new town without designation. The rest of the country has been experiencing something similar in recent years. The development of new towns or areas must be accompanied by infrastructure. The Government gets it consistently wrong and there is a reason for this.

When Fianna Fáil is in power, planning is not done for the general good to meet the needs of people, traders and employers. It is driven exclusively by developers and builders. Although they have a role to play and are essential to the process of development, should they dominate it to the extent they do when Fianna Fáil is in power? This is the reason for the massive scale of public distrust. Our planning process is backward, with consultation at the end rather than the beginning as happens in most countries. Much pseudo consultation takes place because it is required under recent legislation. Many individuals do not wish to take part in pseudo consultation. I find it strange that the Government is perpetually surprised at the negative reaction to notices in the newspapers and meetings where one learns nothing concrete.

I speak from personal experiences of being in Dublin County Council in the early 1990s. I was pestered by developers on all sides, queueing up to propose their land for development. This Bill does not address the value and enormous gains accruing when land is rezoned for infrastructure development. The gain is always to a coterie of builders and developers, of which 90% support one political party in the State. That critical lack of confidence in the planning process originates in the fear of corruption and belief that decisions have been arrived at in an underhand way. It has poisoned the political well for the past 20 years to the extent that, when something is put forward nowadays, even with cross-party agreement among local authority members, the general public still feels left out and suspicious that something has been got over on it. We should look to the United States of America where discussions are held first and proposals are in the public domain, instead of the Irish system where consultation with the public comes last.

This week we have had an example of decentralisation. Across the board in this House, every party agrees with decentralisation, but Fianna Fáil agrees with it as "stroke politics". Some 53 locations are necessary to achieve the big bang within three years of the 2003 budget. Not one Member listening that day did not know that the principle of decentralisation was good but the small print was so crazy that it would not happen. Deputy Kelly knows what happened in Longford in the early 1990s when the Government of which I was part decentralised significant elements of the Department of Social and Family Affairs to the north west. We know that it worked, since it brought great benefits. In many ways former Deputy Albert Reynolds who was Taoiseach at the time spearheaded that decentralisation. However, we know how long it took and that there was an initial rush of up to 25% to the social welfare offices relocating from Longford to Sligo and Letterkenny. Another 25% went easily enough on foot of promotion and with agreed time and space to do so. Then the process stalled and there was local recruitment.

It is no wonder that what is being done has resulted in strikes in public bodies. It has been implemented in a back-door manner with only limited consultation with those involved. Such stroke politics in infrastructural projects makes people suspicious. This week, for instance, I asked the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Harney, a question. That an embryonic department with responsibility for children is developing is good.

I see that the Minister of State at the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Deputy Browne, is present to represent County Wexford. I am sure that he will recall that, when a new structure, the EPA, was being created in those years, the Government stated that, as such, it was an obvious candidate for decentralisation. Johnstown Castle rightly was home to a very good project. One hopes it will now be added to.

When the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform was expanding computer services in such key areas as payroll, high quality jobs were decentralised to Killarney over a period, a move that proved very successful. Both the civil servants involved and Killarney very much welcomed it.

The Government is now creating a department with responsibility for children. It has created a Minister of State with special responsibility in that regard with power to go to the Cabinet and argue children's cases. The department will combine functions from the Departments of Health and Children, Justice, Equality and Law Reform, and Education and Science to address children's needs coherently. That is a new development.

The overseas aid section of the Department of Foreign Affairs has specialists dealing largely with developing countries and embassies based in Dublin and London. This specialist agency, whose employees must work around the world, may now be relocated to Limerick. They do not know when or for how long. Without consultation, we tell them that they are going to Limerick, yet we decentralise the embryonic Department with responsibility for children to within 100 yards of St. Stephen's Green. That is stroke politics at its worst.

All major parties in the House have successfully implemented decentralisation programmes and we know what does and does not work. When it comes to the Planning and Development (Strategic Infrastructure) Bill 2006, we must ask the critical question of the stroke elements that will cause people to lack confidence in the process. The first thing the Minister should do is clarify the position on the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform and the proposals for a heat treatment plant in Ringsend. The Minister has let it be known far and wide that it will not happen on his watch. The Minister of State, Deputy Browne, may smile and I can understand why. Fianna Fáil will probably not have a seat in Dublin South East after the next general election as a consequence.

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