James Bannon (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)

I am sure Deputy Ciarán Cuffe got caught in traffic on his little bike coming here this evening. I am surprised the Green Party did not use all its time on this very important Bill.

Consider the quotation: "It is often forgotten that people are also the first victims of bad planning." These words are not mine but were spoken by the Minister, Deputy John Gormley, when he introduced this Bill in the Seanad. These are words I am sure came back to haunt him over the past week. So well they might. So many people, houses, farms and businesses are victims of the Government's mismanagement. Having shamefully refused to draw up planning regulations to prevent the building of houses on flood plains, what can the Minister of State, Deputy Trevor Sargent, or the Minister, Deputy John Gormley, do for or say to those who have lost everything? I have witnessed the dreadful losses people incurred on foot of the recent flooding. All the Minister does is blame the problem on bad planning. He should remember this Government has been in situ for the past 20 years.

In his contribution in the Seanad, the Minister referred to the lessons being learned and the legacy we have inherited from development plans in recent years. That is certainly a lesson hard learned. The Minister's policies have forced people to build on lowlands and flood plains rather than prime sites on their own farms, as was the traditional safeguard against flooding.

I live in the midlands in a house that was built in the 18th century on an elevated site. It would be a good exercise for the Government, including the Minister, to ascertain the number of recently flooded houses that were built prior to the issuing of the 1963 planning and development regulations.

Over-development with no consideration given to outlets for flood water and the granting of planning permission to speculators to build on every square inch of land without leaving green areas have caused water traps for unsuspecting purchasers. I highlighted time and again as a member of the local authority that we need to provide more green areas in housing developments. I am aware of cases in Longford, Westmeath and many other areas throughout the country where drains were closed and homes were built on the sites. This was wrong. Drains and small rivers to allow for the movement of water were closed up by greedy developers and planners. This happened nationally.

Lessons must be learned from the property boom. Ill-thought-out and unsustainable policies, with an eye not to the needs of buyers but to taxes such as capital gains tax, stamp duty and development levies, ought to be policies of the past. Over-development in the interest of developers, speculators and the Government, which has led to the awful sight of "ghost estates" throughout the country, particularly in the midlands because of the tax incentive scheme, which should have ceased years ago had the Government had any cop-on, must be legislated against strongly. There were crazy schemes in place allowing speculators from the capital to go down the country and build houses that were not even needed just because there was a tax incentive for doing so.

We must consider the role of An Bord Pleanála and the lack of transparency that has dogged its decisions. I recently raised the difficulty in obtaining a reply from the board to my representations or queries. They were ignored and never responded to. I raised this at a committee when we had personnel from An Bord Pleanála present, including the chairman, to discuss its annual report.

As I have said in the House on many occasions, it is a crying shame that young people are forced into substandard accommodation in local towns rather than being allowed to build on their family land. It is extraordinary that builders and speculators have been allowed to build on flood plains and every other inch of land they could find while rural families' building traditions have been overturned by the planning authorities.

For too long, rural Ireland has been at the mercy of a system that displays an anti-countryside bias, resulting in the sons and daughters of country people who have lived for generations in one area being forced off the land into urban areas. I am sure Deputy Mary Alexandra White is aware this occurs in County Carlow, just as I am aware of its occurrence in counties Longford and Westmeath.

An Bord Pleanála must be accountable to the people because bad planning decisions are having an adverse impact on their lives. Unjust and untenable planning decisions are resulting in social problems and unfinished estates. I pity people who are forced to rear families in conditions of extreme anti-social behaviour caused by the failure of planners to ensure adequate infrastructure, transport, leisure facilities, schools and child care facilities are in place in residential areas. Any other country in Europe has a better planning system in place than that in Ireland because in such countries there is an obligation on the developer to install the infrastructure first and then build housing or apartment units.

Despite the havoc they can cause to the lives of people, planners are currently unaccountable for their decisions regarding rural towns and villages. Some 1.8 million people live in the countryside and they need proper representation. Where is the balance in An Bord Pleanála in regard to rural-based people which was promised by the Government? We were promised that people with a background in the rural way of life would be involved with it, but that has not been provided despite numerous representations to the Minister to ensure it would happen. Legislation passed more than 30 years ago provided for representation from rural areas. I regret that has not yet happened. I would appreciate if Deputy Mary Alexandra White would request that the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Gormley, ensure there is rural representation on the board of An Bord Pleanála.

Currently the ethos of most planners is towards urbanisation and an anti-rural housing bias exists when assessing individual applicants. Radical change is needed to bring about positive planning for rural areas. It is scandalous that 49% of all planning reports carried out in Ireland up until recently were by part-time planners based in the UK who had no recognition of the Irish position and our unique historical and cultural traditions. While these planners might have had qualifications from the Royal Town Planning Institute in London, they should have to study courses on how Ireland operates. They had no idea of the Irish dimension before taking up employment in this country, something with which I was very disappointed. We urgently need regulation of the planning sector and personnel in line with other professions such as teaching or nursing, with qualified planners being registered by Irish authorities and bodies as a requirement of practice.

There is one area of Government policy that I particularly want discuss, which while not directly related to planning is by extension relevant to this issue, namely, the new annual charge of €200 on second homes, which was payable by 31 October 2009 and will now have to be paid again early in the New Year. It is an absolute disgrace. The imposition of the charge was another stealth tax and difficult to justify. What possible justice is there in setting a rate for a 12-month period and then obliging taxpayers to pay it again three months later?

The issue emerged at a meeting of the Joint Committee on the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, of which I am a member. Why were taxpayers not informed of this dubious practice? The Minister of State should ask the Minister, Deputy Gormley, to rescind this decision and allow all those who paid the tax to get a full 12 months out of it. This is simply a rip-off by Fianna Fáil and the Green Party which once again fleeces taxpayers.

I have been made aware of a person in my constituency of Longford-Westmeath who owns only one house but is forced to rent a room in Dublin during the winter months at a cost of €600 per month to ensure access to her employment. She is shamefully being charged the €200 tax on her one and only home. This is wrong and unfair. When the tax was introduced we were told it would be a tax on a second home, but the person to which I referred has only one home and is still obliged to pay the tax.

This country has gone mad regarding development plans. We have county development plans, regional development plans for counties and towns, town area plans, district plans and BMW regional plans, to name but a few. There is all planning and no action, which is part of this Government's report mountain which leads us nowhere. There is a huge lack of consistency between one county and the next. Much of the current planning policy must be blamed for the decline in rural schools and closure of rural post offices, shops and other services.

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