John Cregan (Limerick West, Fianna Fail)

I welcome the legislation and am glad to have the opportunity to make a brief contribution to the debate. The predominant purpose of my contribution is to call on the Minister to consider amending the legislation. While I am open to correction, I understand the legislation includes a provision to allow a five-year extension to some planning permission that may run out of time. I greatly welcome this provision and perceive the logic and reason behind it. However, the legislation is lacking in that I understand this provision pertains to development per se as against one-off housing.

I call for consistency, and will revert to that later in my contribution, and for fairness. While I am open to correction, I understand that a developer or contractor will be allowed to extend planning permission beyond the five-year period for which it was granted because of the present economic climate and perhaps because the individual in question is unable to secure the requisite finance to put in place the development. However, a couple who obtained planning permission to build a one-off house, fell on difficult times and lost their jobs through no fault of theirs might have gone to a bank for a mortgage and been refused. To be consistent and in the interests of fairness, we should ensure that we follow through for those people to whom I referred. Is a small builder who has bought one or two sites in the countryside and built two or three houses catered for in the legislation? If so, I welcome the provision, as we would have consistency and fairness. If it is not the case, I ask that the matter be examined.

I represent rural County Limerick and much of my constituency work involves constituents approaching me for assistance with planning applications across a range of areas. When dealing with planning applications, I always call for consistency. I want to see consistency in the planning decisions that are being made daily in my county. If I sit down with a planner or director of services and he or she can justify the reason for refusing a planning application, I accept it. There are genuine reasons for refusals. What I cannot accept, however, is a lack of consistency. I do not mean a lack in one local authority area, but throughout the country.

Take the infamous section 47 that landowners are asked to sign as an example. Before entering the Chamber this evening, I spoke with two colleagues and told them that, in County Limerick, section 47 is for life, not only for the landowner who commits to not allowing further development, but for the next landowner and the landowner after that. I understand that in County Kerry across the border from my constituency, a section 47 is signed for a ten-year period. In County Clare, another adjoining county, a section 47 is signed for a five-year period. This is just one example of a large inconsistency between three counties in my immediate area.

For the benefit of members of the general public who may not understand what a section 47 is, it is where a landowner has been asked to sign off on his or her landholding and given a commitment in writing that he or she will not seek further planning permission for development. In some instances, this favours the landowner. In the absence of the agreement, he or she would not get any planning permission. However, there is a distinct lack of consistency and I question the legality of such a document. Would it stand up in a court of law? Asking anyone to sign off on a section 47 is a considerable undertaking.

I mentioned one-off housing in rural Ireland. There is a distinct train of thought, particularly in the Irish Planning Institute, that there should be fewer one-off houses. I am a strong advocate of rural housing and allowing rural people who need to live in rural areas - I qualify what I am saying - to build in those areas. This is important. Although the institute and others are trying to convince us to build in towns and villages, we have a problem, as towns and villages do not have sufficient infrastructure. I could cite several instances in my county in which applications were made to the Department over a number of years. These applications had been prioritised by the local authority and sent to the Department, which prioritised and approved by them. Since there was no work-to-rule or no go slow, I cannot understand why it would take five, seven or ten years for those projects to come to fruition. The upgrading of a sewage plant in a small town is an example. What are we doing? We can build a motorway or whatever we wish, but we cannot seem to get to grips with doing this. I am not referring to present incumbents, as this system has been in place for years.

If I table a parliamentary question about a particular sewerage scheme upgrade, the reply will tell me that the Department has reverted to the county council for more information. When I speak with the director of services, I am told that the council has reverted to the Department for more information. The matter is up and down the road every second day and we get nowhere. I cannot defend this situation because it is not on. In this day and age, it should not be the case. It is leaving me in a difficult situation.

In my home town of Drumcollogher, there is an embargo on houses being built because the sewerage system has reached its capacity. I accept this, as I do not want to promote pollution or cause people difficulties. However, I want to see progress in my town and progress and growth in the rest of the towns in County Limerick. We are being strangled in this regard because the infrastructure is not in place. Resources and money have been made available, but no progress has been made. I have a bee in my bonnet about this issue, which I take seriously. We are telling people that they cannot build one-off houses in rural Ireland because county development plans specify A, B and C and that we want them to come into towns and villages. However, those who want to build in towns and villages cannot do so. Obviously, we must solve this problem quickly. It is not rocket science. We should allow people to build.

I also wish to raise the issue of pre-planning meetings, an inclusion in our system that I welcome. In County Limerick, our pre-planning system is effective. The applicant can sit down rationally with the planner for the area, discuss the issues and get a note containing an accurate account of the meeting from the planner when leaving. This allows the applicant to know where he or she stands, whether he or she can apply for permission to build a type of house, whether permission will be given, the percolation situation and so on. This is reasonable and proper and prevents people from throwing away good money, as they can be advised. The pre-planning process is welcome and works well for us.

Planning can be subjective and design is a bugbear for many people who want to build houses. Not for one moment would I advocate the so-called build what you like where you like syndrome. This cannot happen and I do not agree with it. If two people are making a decision to build what will, in most cases, be their family home for the rest of their lives, we are quick in telling them that they cannot build a two-storey or dormer house somewhere.

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