Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)

This is a timely discussion which provides an opportunity to speak not just about critical infrastructure and the deficits therein but also about the issue of planning in general. In recent times we have gone through a Celtic tiger boom and significant resources are available to address our critical infrastructural deficit. However, there is no doubt deficits exist in transport, including public transport, roads, water, sewerage, ports, airports and so on. It is timely that the Bill is brought forward and, although it should have been brought forward some time ago, I accept the Minister has brought it forward as quickly as possible. Despite several years of boom, roads, sewerage, incineration and landfill projects have been delayed because of the inadequate planning process available to local authorities and the State to address the current deficit.

Compared to other countries, it is only in recent years that we have had the wherewithal to address the infrastructure deficit. Even so, we are incapable of bringing forward projects as is done in other countries. I am at a loss as to why we must consult to such an extent local authorities, An Bord Pleanála and the courts with regard to major projects. I hope the Bill will address this issue.

Incineration is an emotive issue. Politicians of all persuasions have a responsibility to address the problems of waste and waste management. While we may differ on how we approach it, whether through the use of landfill, reuse and recycle, which we all support, incineration or other forms of waste management, one thing we cannot continue to do is export our waste to other countries. We must be serious in ensuring that we are competitive in the world market and that we bring forward a proper waste management strategy. The Minister has explained this issue in detail but members of other parties and local authorities are still not supportive and do not buy into the idea of having to address the problems of the State.

Everywhere one goes, if a landfill is proposed by a local authority, objections can be guaranteed, and rightly so. However, there must be an end-point to the objections process so the project can go ahead. In recent times, due to the ability of contractors and developers to move ahead expeditiously with construction, the slowest part of a project often has not been the construction but the process to approve the construction. In the case of a road project, a local authority working as an agent for the NRA will come forward with proposals. This will be followed by public consultation, appeals to An Bord Pleanála and environment impact statements before the process heads for the courts. There is a continual series of hurdles for any agent intending to progress a critical infrastructural development. Therefore, the Bill is welcome and timely.

I welcome the provisions with regard to wind and wave energy. We must bring forward guidelines on wind energy. We have "The wind that shakes the barley" but we do not have the ability to erect turbines to harness the wind energy that passes over our country. At the same time, we are heavily dependent on fossil fuels — this issue was raised recently in the House — and import up to 90% of our energy needs. This will not be sustainable in the future as fossil fuels are not finite and their supply is dependent on political concerns, regional conflicts and imports.

In the context of addressing our obligations under the Kyoto Protocol, we are obliged to reduce greenhouse emissions. We will be obliged to get serious about wind and wave energy. We speak about biofuels and ethanol production from crops, oilseed rape, beet and wheat, and we must be progressive and should pioneer the development of wind and wave energy. However, we have been lax and have reneged on our responsibilities to the current generation, which should be given a head start in the context of addressing the problems of fossil fuel shortages and the increasing costs of energy.

We are still building housing stock and while it meets requirements relating to insulation and building materials, it does not address the issue of inclusion of solar power and other forms of energy that can be harnessed. We will be obliged to take action in respect of that issue as a matter of urgency. We are building 70,000 to 80,000 units per year but solar panels are not in place on the vast majority of roofs. That is a dereliction of duty on the part of local authorities and the Oireachtas in not ensuring that these issues are to the fore.

Reference was made to the cost of projects. Recent history indicates that the cost of projects relating to the construction of major roads has not been low. Objections were raised in respect of road projects relating to the Glen of the Downs, the M50 at Carrickmines and, on foot of the existence of a rare snail, the Kildare bypass. One must inquire about the motivation behind those objections. Was it love of the environment or rare snails or was it some form of ad hoc political movement trying to slow down the process by making objections for the sake of doing so? I hope the Bill can address that issue and give people who have bona fide concerns about developments in their areas, public representatives and local authorities the opportunity to meet representatives of the strategic planning section of An Bord Pleanála. Not everybody who has a concern can be tarnished as a crank objector. There are many genuine cases but at the end of the day a decision must be made so that the process can move forward.

If we can reduce the number of crank objectors and commercial objections, that should be done. Deputy Timmins referred to people who have an interest. It is almost a criminal offence for people to use community associations or individuals to object to particular developments, strategic or otherwise, on purely commercial grounds. That is an issue that will have to be examined. It is difficult to prove whether a person is a bona fide objector or is objecting primarily for commercial reasons. Those who object for purely commercial reasons must be weeded out.

There is no doubt that projects have been delayed as a result of objections. That someone can delay a project for six months or a year by objecting to the local authority or An Bord Pleanála for purely commercial reasons is an affront to the basic principles of planning law.

We must adopt a serious approach in respect of communications masts. Every so often difficulties arise in local authority areas or in the constituencies of Oireachtas Members on foot of the erection of communications masts and the concern among members of the public that emissions from such structures can cause cancer or other illnesses. We must be responsible and accept the advice of world authorities on these issues and use that advice, as opposed to people's fears, as the benchmark for adjudicating on issues. The guideline that masts should not be erected near centres of population, schools, hospitals and so on is positive. As technology improves, I have no doubt that such masts could be situated even further away from areas of population and, in particular, from schools, hospitals and areas in which there are large concentrations of younger people. That is an issue about which many people in the Minister's constituency and every other constituency are concerned. People's fears are often fuelled, motions are tabled and rational thinking goes out the window. The reason there is much irrational thinking on this matter is that people have fundamental concerns about it. We should have proper guidelines and use the findings of the World Health Organisation and any other reputable bodies as the benchmark for health and safety issues.

In regard to the fixed price contract, there are two problems. We have all heard of the waste of public funds on certain projects. Often that is not correct. A project may be initiated and a cost projection made in respect of it. By the time it goes through the local authority, an environmental impact assessment, An Bord Pleanála, the courts and further environmental impact studies, the inflationary costs of construction have increased. Additions are frequently made to projects. If a project comes in on time, those involved should be applauded. Not everybody in the House will applaud a project that comes in on time but if there is a perceived overrun, people will use it as an excuse to refer to the waste of public money. The cost of a project is often based on figures drawn up previously.

I wish to refer to Cork City Council's development of a new waste water treatment system, which has transformed the quality of life. When initiated, it was costed at £80 million. It went over budget on a number of fronts, however, primarily because by the time it reached the construction stage, prices had increased. There were also other reasons that it went over budget. In genera,l there is a recognition that fixed-price contracts must be introduced in respect of large infrastructural developments because the incidental and extra costs that developers and contractors can impose on the State are unacceptable. I am glad they have come into being.

Reference was made to Transport 21 and the national spatial strategy. Decentralisation is a positive development and should be encouraged. In the main, those who have been decentralised and who have moved voluntarily have found it a positive experience. The decentralisation programme should be encouraged and those who have volunteered should be moved as quickly as possible. If people have a positive experience, I genuinely believe that others will sign up. There is a life for people outside Dublin. There are positives in the context of rearing families, people's quality of life, the availability of open spaces and less traffic. Decentralisation is, therefore, a positive development and should be encouraged.

A major problem exists at local authority level. Every few years, the planners and those in management get together to formulate county development plans. In my opinion, the elected members of local authorities are, in many cases, merely there to rubber-stamp measures. The reason for this is that they do not have access to expertise in their own right. Those proposing the plan, namely, the planners and the manager, present it to the councillors who, in the main, are not experienced in the field of planning, adjudicating on zoning and the further development of an area. A fund should be put in place from which the various party groupings can access money to bring in outside consultants to provide professional opinions rather than their being obliged to accept the opinions of planners and managers. If the planners are those proposing the plan, it is farcical that the councillors are obliged to take the advice of the proposers in any development plan. If we are serious about developing our towns and cities in a cohesive and planned manner, local authority members must be given access to resources to adjudicate on the decisions and recommendations made by planners. This is a serious issue. I sat on a local authority and at the end of the day one was told the planners and the management recommend it, and the threat always was that there would be legal implications. That puts the fear of God in local authority members.

I propose that at a certain point, when a development plan is being formulated, a certain compulsory provision of funding be made available by the local authority to parties of various groupings and sizes so they can bring in an eminent outside body with expertise in the area to give them a flavour what the planners and management are proposing and decipher the jargon often put before them. I hope the Minister will look at that favourably.

I am not denigrating planners. They are all honest people of high integrity, and they work judiciously. However, if they are planners, how did they never foresee this increase in our population? How is it they never zoned enough land to address the shortage? As sure as night follows day, and a county development plan is approved, planners immediately return with variations because of the shortage of land. Surely planners should be planning well in advance. By the time many local authorities have passed their county development plans, the plans are out of date and they have not got sufficient access to development land to alleviate the burden on young people trying to purchase houses.

We can talk on an on about housing but one of the major cost components in a house is the price of land. There are labour and material costs, but to build a house is a very expensive undertaking. It is causing great hardship for many young people. In some areas of Cork, one can purchase a site for one house for up to €300,000, before one puts a block on it. That is entirely unacceptable. Even in large-scale developments, the "stand" to build a house can sometimes be up to €60,000 or €70,000 per unit, in high density areas. That is not acceptable. There is talk of developers hoarding land banks and having racked up large areas of land. Even if they have done so, the planners should be in a position to figure out in the future what will happen down the tracks with regard to demographics, population changes, the dynamics of work, and where people travel to and from. Planners have not been to the fore in addressing land shortage problems.

I know the Minister will have some sympathy for my proposal that local authorities would have access to outside professional assistance when drawing up county development plans. It is not in the context of this Bill, but we are still talking of infrastructure and housing developments, and they are inter-related.

I welcome the announcements on rural planning guidelines. While we have many quangos and other bodies adjudicating, it might at times be no harm to have an independent body which could check if local authorities are implementing Government policies as outlined in this House. This body would not check cost over-runs, as the Comptroller and Auditor General does, but would see if policy was being implemented in the manner we propose, just as the Bill before us, the Planning and Development (Strategic Infrastructure) Bill, will put in place a section of An Bord Pleanála.

However, who will ensure those board members are doing their job properly, that they are meeting the guidelines? For years, An Bord Pleanála has told us it was inundated with planning applications and said it was not able to meet the guidelines. In the end it would send out for additional information and perhaps delay matters for another two months. We then return to this House and give the board more resources, and the same racket starts again. I am not saying the board is not snowed under with work, but there should be some way of ensuring its work is monitored and that its members are doing their work as they were encouraged to do by the Houses of the Oireachtas.

With regard to pre-planning and consultation, communities certainly have some difficulties and concerns with some infrastructural developments, including landfills, incinerators, gas stations and a myriad of other projects. A community gain should be involved in such projects. I was once involved in a situation where a particular infrastructural development was going on in my constituency. Though it was unpopular, I supported it because it was in the interests of the common good. This was the sewage treatment plant in Little Island. I supported that development while most others objected to it. It was the right thing to do, and it would now be difficult to find anyone in Cork city to say otherwise. However, some local residents, neighbours and friends were objecting to the scheme.

I try to encourage local authorities to ensure some community gain will ensue. There has been a little gain, but I fear that once a development goes ahead, the commitment to the community gain weakens dramatically. I was seeking community playing pitches and a walkway, and while some provision has been made, there should be proper monitoring to ensure this part of the deal is also honoured and the commitments adhered to. That is an issue on which I feel strongly. Some politicians support an issue which is unpopular, and all of a sudden the local authority promises various things. The development then goes ahead, but the community gain goes out the window. There must be a follow-up to ensure there are conditions so that when planning is granted and progresses the conditions regarding community gain are adhered to in tandem, or as quickly as possible thereafter. The Minister will have noted such promises of landscaping, pitch developments and walkways, which have never been fulfilled.

I commend the Minister and I know he understands the difficulties. With the resources available to the State, we must use this opportunity to ensure we have a proper infrastructural development in the future which can serve the needs of the economy now and the generations ahead.

See this speech in context