Ulick Burke (Galway East, Fine Gael)

Is the Minister of State aware of the contents of the statement made last week by the Minister, Deputy Gormley, on the circular he sent to selected local authorities throughout the country? The statement implies that there is a suspicion in his mind and that he queries the planning practices of those local authorities and their transparency. Is the Minister aware of how those local authorities were selected? If so, will he tell the House? From what I tried to extract from the Department and other sources, it was on a numerical basis. Is the Minister familiar with Galway County Council and the volume of applications received and referred to An Bord Pleanála? He selectively and pointedly used the figures for how many applications were reversed and refused by An Bord Pleanála. He based a judgment on this that was totally unfair. He never gave a comparable figure for those that were refused by Galway County Council, appealed to An Bord Pleanála and subsequently granted.

The circular states that the planning system provides that all planning files must be available for public inspection. Every member of the public is invited by the public notice accompanying an application to pay a minimal fee for a duplicate of that application. The Minister is trying to bring all the planning decisions to himself. Is the Minister familiar at all with the processes? Is this a stalling tactic? This is an attempted indictment of something wrong in those areas based solely on numerical information that is totally wrong.

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