Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)

This important debate comes after a long process, much of which was debated in the public domain, and after a long period of reflection for the tribunal before producing a result. The findings of the tribunal are serious, significant and true. As other Deputies have said, planning corruption has been endemic in our country.

It is not the case that all the right is on one side and all the wrong on the other. Out of eight seats here, five of them would be filled by Fianna Fáíl people who were involved, Messrs Haughey, Burke, Ahern, Reynolds and Flynn. All of these were found to have acted inappropriately in terms of planning and some of them were found to have acted corruptly. Undoubtedly, in the serried ranks behind Fianna Fáil for many years, there were many fine decent people and I acknowledge that. However, when Fianna Fáil states that only a small number of people were involved in corruption, it was the people at the top of and the leaders of the party who were involved. That is the reason the country is in the place it is in now. It is because of the relationship between politics, planning, building and houses and the other issues mentioned by Deputy Collins.

I was first elected as a councillor in 1974 and was very concerned, as is everybody here, about proper planning and development. In Drogheda, we had a listed building in the centre of the town, Drogheda Grammar School. It was on a two-acre site in the heart of the town and was protected by a High Court order and could not be demolished without planning permission. The old school was built around the 1740s and was of national importance as a historic building and an example of Georgian architecture. I am sure Deputies can guess what happened. One holiday weekend in the middle of the night a developer knocked the school down. This would have provided him with a fabulous clear site with no encumbrance in terms of a listed building and unfettered planning for whatever he might want, regardless of our heritage.

The local authority refused to take action on this and the Department of the Environment refused to intervene, so I and a friend, Eddie O'Doherty, brought the developers to the High Court. I was a Fine Gael councillor at the time and Eddie was just an ordinary guy. When nobody else would, we forced the developers to be accountable to the laws of the land and the court. The action we took resulted in those developers having to pick up every brick and bit of cut stone they knocked that could be preserved for use in the reconstruction of the building. When they refused to obey the order of the court, we went to the court again and got an order for their imprisonment for refusal to obey the order. The planning battle went on, but the result is that today that building stands. It has been rebuilt and is now an important part of a shopping centre, but it retains its original integrity. I tell this story today to show that it was action by community activists that helped us achieve that.

We took on the vested interests in our town and we took on the local authority when it refused to act. We took on the political system which showed no interest in the issue at the time and with the help of conservation groups, An Taisce, the Old Drogheda Society and the Louth Archaeological Society, we made sure the law in question was respected and that the developers paid the fine which was a maximum at the time of £10,000. This maximum amount was subsequently changed to €1 million, as a result of these issues. Never again will a listed building be demolished in the centre of our town and in the manner in which it was. Corruption was at the heart of that issue at the time just as it is at the heart of the Mahon planning tribunal. It is naked greed to make a fast buck and to set aside everything else except the interests of the developers. I acknowledge that Fianna Fáil councillors in Drogheda stood with us in that battle. Unfortunately, one member of the Labour Party did not help us at all. I will not name him but his actions were a disgrace.

As Deputy Joan Collins said, when one takes on the establishment and when one wins a just cause, one must then change the way people think. Fighting corruption at a local level can be very difficult for the ordinary common or garden guy when many powerful and wealthy people who control resources are involved. We did not have two pennies to rub together. When we went to the High Court, our barrister, who took the case pro bono, asked us how much money we had and we replied that we had nothing, only our homes which we put on the line. We took that risk because we were in the right and we were proven right. This tribunal result shows that we can no longer allow corrupt development and corrupt politicians to put our country's future at risk.

Significant changes have been made since the time of that court case and since the findings of the Moriarty tribunal. The planning system is now better organised and co-ordinated and any planning application must have due and proper regard to local area plans, regional planning and many other considerations. The planning process is now more transparent and accountable. However, more changes are still needed to make the system more accountable. Many of the tribunal's recommendations are important and it is the duty of the Government to implement them.

From my experience as a councillor, there should be more accountability at representational level. so that a planning representation by an elected member should be recorded in the file, and this should include any oral representations to the chief planning officer. As has been shown in the tribunal report, people were pretending to do something while doing the opposite. The public were conned and codded in many cases by the public representatives who have been found wanting in this regard.

Another issue of concern arises when An Bord Pleanála holds an investigation into a planning issue. Oral hearings often last for two or three weeks with lorry loads of consultants speaking for developers against ordinary members of the public. It is often the case that An Bord Pleanála overturns the views of the planning inspector who carries out the oral hearing. In my view, there ought to be a greater barrier preventing An Bord Pleanála overturning the decision of a planning inspector who has heard all the evidence because this can bring the process into disrepute.

In conclusion, the country is changing for the better and this report will help in the creation of better planning, better law and a better future for everybody. I hope to see the end of type of housing estates which were built during the Celtic tiger era, poorly constructed houses for which people paid through the teeth. The infrastructure is appalling and there was not proper oversight by the local authorities in many cases. A significant number of people will be paying for these houses for the rest of their lives. It is a result none of us wanted but it is what we have and we will have to deal with it.

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