Cecilia Keaveney (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)

When we talk about critical infrastructure it is important that we recognise the €15 million investment made by this Government and the government that has responsibility for Derry City Airport. This will improve our area and access to it. There were difficulties with the residents but they have now been resolved, an example of the significant benefits of cross-Border co-operation.

During this debate, many Members will refer to critical infrastructure in terms of the railway service. Unfortunately, Donegal does not have a railway system but should we be in a position to be able to link the Derry service with that in Sligo — the campaign for the western corridor had been strong but did not appear to include Donegal — this legislation would ensure that issues can be expedited to either put tracks in place or reinstate existing tracks. I take this opportunity to ask the Minister for Transport to work with his counterpart in Northern Ireland to ensure that there will be a direct service from Derry to Dublin. There is no reason that this should not be the case because the track is available. It is not a matter of anybody needing to object; it is rather a matter of putting in place better quality track and running a train on it from start to finish.

I acknowledge also that to leave Donegal to come to Dublin one must use either the M1 or the M2. I recognise the major improvements on the M1 and the significant improvements in respect of the M2. The opening of the bypass at Ashbourne has significantly helped areas such as Donegal but we deserve a motorway into the north west similar to those to Galway, Limerick, Cork, Waterford and Belfast. I hope that will be put in place in the near future but I accept that the major investment that has taken place has had a positive impact.

I want to raise the issue of the local road infrastructure because, with the exception of a six-mile stretch, there is no primary or secondary road on the Inishowen Peninsula where I live. We are dealing, therefore, with county roads. When the former Deputy, Bobby Molloy, was Minister of State, he took away our local improvement scheme money because he said Donegal County Council, like some other councils, was spending it in a piecemeal fashion. We were then obliged to start spending it in a more coherent way.

When it comes to investment in our major county roads network which comprises the Buncrana to Bridgend, Moville to Derry, Quigley's Point through Glentogher into Carndonagh routes and the Buncrana inner relief road — thankfully, the Carndonagh inner relief is well progressed — the Minister has visited Donegal and seen the situation at close hand. The LISs now get significant money but progress is unnecessarily slow and there should be a bigger injection of funds into the areas to which I refer, particularly those where there is no national primary or secondary road. The infrastructural investments should be skewed in favour of those areas in each council region to ensure the developments can progress faster than is currently the case.

There are issues also regarding land acquisition. The process takes far too long. If we need the land, the process must be expedited, which is part of the purpose of this Bill. This legislation will have a positive impact in areas such as that which I represent.

The same situation applies in respect of water and sewerage systems. We have difficulties in locating sites because, even though there is significant investment and the technology has moved on, people are objecting. I accept that in many cases there are genuine concerns. I accept also Deputy Penrose's point that we do not want people from outside coming into a local area and deciding policy and the way projects should progress. Local people should have an input in terms of what happens in their areas. By the same token, however, the bigger picture must be addressed.

An issue that is very pertinent in my county is that of power and communications networks. We had many talks from the ESB warning us that if we were living in west Donegal, we could wake up some day and discover the we had no power and that we would need the extra support of another line. A balance must be struck between the right to express one's concerns and the right of people to have the basic infrastructure they require. There is a debate about mobile phone masts and inadequate coverage for mobile phones throughout the country. However, when we examine ways to improve those, there are more objections than there are people who support particular locations. We must find some mechanism to develop best practice and clear guidelines on what is acceptable and ensure that, in the initial phase, the applications being received are not off the wall, for want of a better phrase, but are in compliance with basic standards. This will ensure that, at the very least, people in a locality will be protected by appropriate guidelines and national and international best practice.

Deputy Penrose referred to school infrastructure. A secondary school was recently built on the peninsula on which I live. The board of management involved and the parents' association challenged the Department of Education and Science to give them the money to build the school. They rose to that challenge and we now have a fine school. If people are prepared to meet the challenge, it is only right that they should be allowed to do so.

I agree that the position in respect of education is changing. In terms of water and sewerage systems, however, the process within the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government has been slow. People are obliged to submit applications to their local councils and these are then vetted and passed back and forth. My most recent experience of that concerned the fire service but, thankfully, we have reached the stage where tenders have been accepted and a fire station to matched the excellent ones in Carndonagh and Buncrana will be built in Moville.

On wind farms, I am in favour of renewable energy and I have no difficulty with land-based wind farms. In terms of wind energy potential, County Donegal probably represents one of the biggest possibilities in respect of the development of wind farms. I will sound like someone adopting a NIMBY attitude in putting this point — that is not my intention — but there was an option of putting a 30 turbine, 80 storey wind farm on the Foyle. I referred to examining guidelines and best practice but this is one of the last national fisheries in the country and possibly in Europe. One wonders about putting 30 wind turbines in a scenic area that has a wonderful natural fishery, when the best advice one can obtain from the company promoting it is that the smolts can swim around at the bottom of the river and it will be an attraction for anybody wanting to operate glass bottom boats. I know a great deal about fishing but I assume that if the smolts swim around a particular location, the bigger fish will soon catch on to what is happening and we might not have a natural fishery in the future.

There is potential for hydroelectricity and tidal energy. There are projects that are less intrusive in certain locations and the type of project brought to a particular location should be in keeping with what that location can embrace. I speak as somebody who lives in a house overlooking wind farms situated on land. When we bring forward projects and before people object or otherwise, we should ensure the projects are in keeping with the location.

An Bord Pleanála has made many important decisions. Most people will either strongly agree or disagree with those, but it does an important job. One of the difficulties is that it can take a long time for those decisions to be delivered and the speeding up of the process is important. It is vital that people have the ability to put their case but we must be able to proceed with considered haste rather than avoid reaching conclusions. It is possible to do both. We can speed up the process and ensure that decisions are taken and that cases do not drag on for years.

In my experience in respect of some vital items of infrastructure, there have been cases where decades passed but projects did not advance.

It is much better to cut to the chase. Deputy Penrose spoke of telling people the truth, regardless of whether they liked it or whether votes were lost. People appreciate it if others are straight with them. In the same spirit, the Planning and Development (Strategic Infrastructure) Bill must deliver a scenario in which people will have the right to air their views, positively or negatively, and which will bring about a resolution within a reasonable timeframe. Everyone will then know where they stand.

Donegal is a county that is particularly in need of infrastructure. It relies heavily on the remainder of the country for its access, be it through rail, air or road infrastructure. It also relies heavily on Northern Ireland as its geographical hinterland to help it with access. I would like to think that the issue of the natural gas pipeline, which had been supported and developed from Belfast to Letterkenny — but which has stopped in Derry — will be reconsidered so that the critical pieces of infrastructure can be delivered.

In our case, it will be delivered in the context of cross-Border co-operation. Similar to the ESB's involvement in the power station at Coolkeeragh in County Derry, these issues are out of the immediate and sole control of this particular jurisdiction. They rely on co-operation. I look forward to the time when the Northern Executive is up and running again. Our items of critical infrastructure can be planned and developed in a coherent fashion. Unfortunately, in County Donegal, in many instances we require the co-operation of the other jurisdiction. The most profitable development of such infrastructure can only be done with Northern politicians taking on the mantle of being the decision-makers and decision-takers, rather than abdicating the responsibility to people in Westminster or those in Scotland or Wales.

It is time Donegal had the ability to develop in the same way as other places. This item of infrastructure legislation will help all parts of the country to develop their infrastructure. However, in some key areas we are reliant on matters outside our control. I hope, in that context, that the process currently under way and deemed to conclude by 24 November will be of assistance.

I will return to a minor point of which I have been reminded, namely, the issue of trying to ensure that local people can have their families accommodated. With council development plans, we must be cognisant of the idea of the local. I am sure Members will be familiar with cases where somebody, perhaps a person from abroad who has a holiday home in which they reside for two weeks per year, will make an objection to An Bord Pleanála with regard to an individual who has already gone through the system and been deemed able to build on family land. An Bord Pleanála may have ruled against the person building their own home on their own land.

It is a difficult balance between the right to object and the right for people to have their own family home. This also applies to people's right to object to critical items of infrastructure. Delays in respect of the latter can hold back towns, counties or, ultimately, the country from maximising their potential. There are probably positives and negatives for everybody in respect of the Bill and I am glad I had the opportunity to comment on it.

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