Tom Hayes (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)

I am pleased to have the opportunity to say a few words on this important Bill. I welcome it and its primary purpose, the introduction of a streamlined planning consent procedure for strategic infrastructural developments. The commitment to streamline the consent procedure for vital infrastructural development has not come before time. While acknowledging the rapid pace of economic development and expansion that has taken place in Ireland in the past 15 years, there is no escaping the fact that our infrastructures have sadly lacked behind and has not kept pace with development as the country progressed. Citizens are still expected to travel on trains which would not be out of place in some of our museums. Some of the trains travelling on our tracks across the country are in very poor condition. Trains are so antiquated that to exit them, one must open the windows and attempt to open the door from the outside, no doubt like our forefathers in past centuries.

Our railway infrastructure is also failing in terms of meeting people's travel needs. Nobody can dispute that rail travel in this country is very expensive in European terms. People pay up to €30, €40 and €50 for a ticket and stand all the way to Dublin. As well as being uncomfortable, this is very unsafe. I have heard of this happening routinely, particularly on Sunday evenings, when those who board trains at stations from Portlaoise onwards are often left standing between carriages as far as Dublin. This is disgraceful and shameful, particularly when people are paying such money. On parts of the Continent, in France in particular, passengers are assigned seats when they buy their train tickets, a simple, straightforward and fair process. Why can this not be implemented here? Is it because we are happy to let people pay the full price for a ticket but be denied a seat on the train? Attempts to introduce new trains recently met with strike action. This has not inspired people as to the future or reliability of rail travel. Embarrassing infrastructure deficits such as the lack of rail links to the main airports must be urgently addressed. Those forced to travel by road to Dublin Airport must face the traffic chaos caused by the Dublin Port tunnel works which frequently reduce traffic flow to a snail's pace. When one eventually reaches the airport, it is difficult to find car parking. These infrastructure deficits have created a farcical situation. Visitors arriving in the State are amazed at the traffic jams they meet once they leave Dublin Airport. A poor infrastructure compounds the problems associated with overcrowded buses. Rush hour in Dublin is a nightmare for bus passengers with buses crawling along stuffed to capacity with weary commuters. These people pay their taxes and deserve a better service.

Outside Dublin we often see the traffic consequences of unsafe roads when accidents occur. The Government belatedly recognised the importance of seat belts on school buses in saving lives. It is time to prioritise the health and safety of our citizens. The Government holds the taxpayers pennies in some areas while throwing away good money after bad on vanity projects and poorly planned fiascoes like electronic voting. The school bus fleet is in a poor state. I recently tabled a parliamentary question on the school transport fleet. The response from the Department was that it did not know what the school transport situation was in south Tipperary. This is appalling when one considers the horrific crashes in other areas.

The necessity for this legislation is evidenced by the fact that our road network remains light years behind that of Germany and other European countries. The Cork-Dublin road, for example, is a joke. Vital bypasses at Cashel and Kildare have shifted the traffic chaos to other towns such as Abbeyleix and Mitchelstown, creating bottlenecks there. The slow pace of roadworks is making life difficult for drivers on this road. In parts of counties Kildare and Dublin, roadworks slow traffic to 60 km/h for several miles, frustrating and beleaguering drivers.

As a public representative pressing for more enterprises to locate to south Tipperary, I find the poor infrastructure there often undermines attempts to make a positive case for the region. While highlighting the presence of a talented and willing workforce, I cannot argue that the area has a good road and rail network or universal availability of broadband. Failure to address these issues is disadvantaging many rural areas. This is a critical time — while the economy is booming — to provide this infrastructure. Investors still consider Ireland a sound economic base. Failure to implement vital infrastructure developments urgently will create an impediment that rural Ireland will find hard to overcome. I hope the Bill will go a long way to address the lack of infrastructural developments hampering the economic potential of the regions.

The Bill has not come before the House too soon. The potential to fast-track vital infrastructure projects is an important provision, particularly for road and rail projects. I welcome the provision which allows for an environmental assessment. Sensitivity must always be shown to the environment. We do not want a repeat of the disastrous destruction of much of Georgian Dublin which happened during another progressive era. The health and safety of the citizens must be of paramount importance when considering new projects, particularly with incinerators, which are provided for in the Bill. People are extremely fearful of the health risks associated with incineration. Their concerns cannot be brushed aside. It was proposed to locate an incinerator in the Tipperary South constituency. People did not know if an incinerator could damage their health. There were large public meetings in the county on the matter. The health issue surrounding incinerators must be addressed. The same is true with mobile telephone masts. As one of the most controversial issues hitting every Member's desk, it too needs to be addressed.

I welcome the provision to fast-track wind farm development. A key cornerstone of the Fine Gael Party's environmental policy is the commitment to ensuring one third of the State's electricity will be generated from renewable energy sources in 20 years. It is vital we reduce our dependency on oil in this area. Wind farms are one mechanism to allow us achieve this.

The Bill alone will not eradicate delays in vital infrastructure projects. The long delays precipitated by the courts which can add a further two year delay to a project must be addressed. Two individuals involved in the planning process with whom I spoke regarding the Bill claimed it allowed for acres of work for lawyers. This could lead to a desperate situation. It is vital the Bill is not stuck in the High Court.

I note the allocation of €251,000 to An Bord Pleanála for it to develop a new strategic infrastructural division with ten staff. Will this small amount of money and low staff allocation be sufficient? The example of the Private Residential Tenancies Board does not inspire confidence. While a board arbitrator must deliver his or her judgment in a fortnight, there is a backlog of at least two months in sending out results. If that is the case, it is ridiculous and the matter needs to be addressed.

There will be an ever increasing number of planning cases sent to An Bord Pleanála. Due to the guidelines, particularly those for one-off houses, people who are unhappy will appeal to An Bord Pleanála and the board will be increasingly busy as a result. It is important the board be given proper resources.

On another issue relating to An Bord Pleanála and its members, it is vital that local authority representatives, whether councillors or persons with a good knowledge of the running and workings of local authorities, be made members of the board of An Bord Pleanála. That is a proposal the Minister, Deputy Roche, should consider seriously. Such persons have vast experience and have spent years dealing with planning issues. They have dealt with such matters from the start and have considerable experience, and there is a sound case to be made for their inclusion on the board. I ask the Minister to examine that important matter.

The Bill will rightly not cover shopping centres or office block developments. The main idea behind the provision is that it is seen to be fair, open and transparent. This is vitally important. My party supports this completely because too much to do with planning has been hidden in the past. Any of us who were members of local authorities will recall that one recurring difficulty in planning was what was said and what was seen to be done. There is a need to be open and transparent about every aspect of planning because it involves considerable sums of money, land changing hands and developers. It is vital that everything is transparent and open.

The need to deal with rogue developers is another issue every Member hears raised. Every Member of this House and every local authority member is concerned that there are still cases of unfinished housing estates. I recently saw two developers working side by side in a town. One of them opted for phased development of housing in his large estate of almost 100 houses. It was well planned. The first ten were built, gardens were laid out and roadways were put down, and then they moved along to the next phase. The other developer built all his houses, sold them all and left the roads potholed. It is deplorable that anybody should be allowed do that. The Minister must control such rogue developers. They are making significant profits. They have benefitted considerably over the years. They have buckets of money. They charge exorbitant prices for houses. That is another area at which the Minister needs to look.

Planning presents challenges at local level. All rural based Deputies will be aware of the need to simplify the planning process in rural areas. Most people feel totally lost when it comes to the planning application process and are heavily reliant on public representatives to help them negotiate the complex procedures. Anyone looking at any of the local authority websites will see the amount of planning applications which are being made without public representatives, and sometimes these people go to two, three or four public representatives. The waste of time involved for local authority officials alone must be considered. Most of the planning applications that these people so badly need in rural areas would not be approved only for the guidance of local public representatives.

It is important that all this is taken into account. There is still frustration with the rural housing guidelines among many people looking to build houses. When all these new highways, such as those from Dublin to Cork and Galway to Waterford, are built to take the extra traffic, there should be some leniency in allowing people access onto some of the roads which link towns and which then may not be as busy. The NRA is the party objecting to such people building houses onto those roads. The Minister should re-examine the matter. The quality of life in rural Ireland is second to none and we should allow our people to live there. Such objections are grossly unfair. I acknowledge that the Minister has been pro-active on this issue but problems still remain. There are people still being refused planning permission day in, day out.

On a point Deputy Kelleher mentioned earlier, there is a considerable discrepancy in the advice of planners and architects employed by planning applicants. Their advice is not good and the Minister should insist that these fellows be made undertake an examination on the county development plans because there are a considerable number of them charging thousands of euro and they are not even familiar with the county development plans.

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