Mary White (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)

I am sharing my time with Deputy Ciarán Cuffe. This is a most important debate and I am delighted to welcome this legislation. It should have been put in place many years ago because we are now reaping the rewards - probably the wrong word - or the pain of poor planning over many years. All of us in the House have experience of bad planning, particularly those of us who came through the local authority system which has ravaged many of our cities, towns and small villages. Coming up to the Dáil this week, I took a photograph of a flood plain which had a planning application and outline planning permission for three sites. The water from the River Barrow was 100 yards away but the flood water had come right up to the road. I have this on my mobile telephone if the Acting Chairman would like to look at it.

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