Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)

I propose to share time with Deputy Dara Murphy. No one did more to destroy confidence in politics and planning in this country than the Fianna Fáil Party. This motion has nothing to do with restoring confidence and trust in planning and politics. As Fianna Fáil seeks to leave its tarnished past behind, it sees the shortest route back to respectability as attempting to tarnish the entire political and governmental system with the filthy brush it made its own for as long as most people in the country can remember. The Mahon tribunal vividly showed that planning corruption was a cottage industry in the Fianna Fáil Party and went all the way to the top. We can trace a line from the genesis of that culture to the collapse of our economy and the difficulties our country faces. As Fianna Fáil faces the future, it suits its purposes to invoke the view that all politicians are the same. Did they not all have their snouts in the trough? The Mahon tribunal demonstrated that the Labour Party did not and Fianna Fáil's cynical attempt to spread the muck will not wash with the Labour Party or the vast majority of the public.

I welcome the publication of the review and I note the comments from the Green Party. The recollection of its members about the design of this process leaves much to be desired and owes more to an attempt to rewrite history and revise its bitter experience in government. It does not have any relationship with the facts. The review is about planning processes. It is useful and valuable but does not represent the end of the process. There is much more to be done. I look forward to the detailed recommendations advanced by the Minister, Deputy Hogan, and the Minister of State, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, in terms of the changes required to the planning system on foot of the Mahon report.

I spent 12 years as a member of two planning authorities acting as a responsible advocate for good, sustainable and sensible planning. I was sometimes a lonely voice, joined only by planners, managers, town clerks and some councillors combatting a sustained feeding frenzy of proposed projects from developers, speculators and landowners who stood to make millions at the stroke of a pen. I was astonished to open my post one morning in the run-up to the 2004 local elections and find a short note wrapped in a cheque for €500 from a well-known and active local developer and landowner. One of his sites was being considered for zoning and he stood to make a considerable profit. At that stage, my local authority was going through the development process. On making inquiries, I found that all of my outgoing colleagues on the council received the same note and unsolicited contribution which was designed, we were assured, to assist the democratic process. I quickly and publicly handed back the cheque and encouraged others to do the same. I cannot know what would have happened if I had decided not to return this unwelcome contribution. Would the matter have come to public attention? Would others have handed it back? The question strikes me whether this still happens. My story is from 2004, eight years ago. Why would someone choose to do this, where else is this happening and how can it be stopped?

There are shortcomings and flaws in the planning process and the political system. We can do everything humanly possible to ensure our planning and political systems are free from corruption but we must also make sure that we, as citizens, select people with the necessary integrity and clarity of character to do the job people are entitled to expect of us. It is up to all of us to expose corruption, wrongdoing, malfeasance and maladministration. We must tighten up administration and decision-making in planning. This does not hermetically seal the planning system. Good officials and good public representatives will make the difference.

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