Joe Carey (Clare, Fine Gael)

It was 2003. What went on in that instance was outrageous. Such land should never be built on and there should be protection to ensure this is so. It is obvious that flood-risk areas have not been protected and it is critical that the Ennis flood relief scheme be amended in order to address the major flooding problems which surfaced in areas of Ennis that had never flooded before.

The River Fergus drains half of County Clare. The sheer volume of water which travels through Ennis town cannot be contained in the narrow river channel. Consideration must, therefore, be given to the development of major attenuation ponds outside the town. Such man-made ponds would help control the flow of water through Ennis and prevent flooding. They could be used for aqua sports during the summer months or as reservoirs when water supplies are low.

I thank the Oireachtas Library & Research Service for providing the excellent debate pack relating to the Bill. However, there is one glaring omission from the Bill, namely, one further level from where much inappropriate planning emanates and one institution that, from time to time, does a great deal of damage to proper planning. I cannot find any references in the legislation to the actions of the Cabinet in respect of good, appropriate and sustainable development.

I refer to the Cabinet for a number of reasons. The national spatial strategy, which the Minister appears to regard as fundamentally important to his principles of good and sustainable planning, represents a missed opportunity. It is a document that is hopelessly diluted. In addition, it failed miserably in the context of the first test with which it was presented. The decentralisation plan, as presented by the Government, through the Minister for Finance in one of his budgets, took absolutely no account of the national spatial strategy which emerged just before it.

Another example of Government or Cabinet interference in the planning process relates to tax incentive-based development in respect of housing associated with tourism. For example, many houses were built in areas along the River Shannon, Ireland's largest waterway, at a time when there was little expressed need for this type of development. Many of these houses are rarely occupied and their construction has effectively prevented the construction of more sustainable homes because the capacity for services such as sewerage and water has been reached. Those who live in Killaloe, County Clare, cannot obtain planning permission or tap into the existing sewerage system because there is no further capacity to be had. Many towns and villages along the Shannon have effectively been sterilised as a result of the actions of the Cabinet or the Government in general.

It will be interesting to discover whether the Minister will be able to deal with the problem of Cabinet interference for reasons of political expediency. He previously asserted that planning decisions at local level cannot fly in the face of wider regional and national interests, particularly those agreed and endorsed by the Government. What happens in that regard should be carefully monitored in the run-up to the next general election.

The thrust of the legislation, and its preoccupation with centralisation, is worrying. The centralised model of government it puts forward does not work. Our most recent administrative experiment with the transfer of responsibilities from the old regional health boards to the centralised HSE has not worked. Most of the remainder of the world abandoned politburo-style centralisation with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. However, we in Ireland tend to positively embrace the concept and occasionally polish it up - with a bit of PR spin - for reuse.

If the Minister really wants proper planning and development, then local people and those in leadership positions in their own communities - I do not necessarily refer to elected representatives in this regard - must be given a meaningful role. These people have a better knowledge than anyone else with regard to how their areas might be developed in the future. However, the Minister and the Government seem to have an absolute fear of allowing something of this nature to happen.

The legislation is seriously misguided in its obsession with centralisation and the vesting of powers in the individual. The fact that the Minister described these guidelines as a combination of both a top-down and a bottom-up approach shows just how ill-conceived and contradictory is the legislation actually.

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