Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The public is sick to the back teeth with the endless sequence of tribunals and inquiries. The sums involved are huge, with the Mahon tribunal costing in the region of $300 million. We do not seem to learn lessons from them, however. The usual finding is of systems failure but it takes an age to put new systems and legislation in place. We tend to be reactive, and proactive legislation is long-fingered while we try to fix existing problems. It is a source of great frustration that the key players seldom pay a significant price. During the course of the last general election there was a strong desire for a democratic revolution which would usher in radical reform in politics and institutions. It is seven years since the Mahon tribunal concluded its hearings and the new planning legislation has yet to be introduced.

The financial costs goes beyond the cost of the tribunals. Large tracts of land in Dublin were held back from development to increase their value, and the resulting shortage of available building land drove up the cost of housing. Many of the people who purchased those houses are now struggling to pay off their loans. I need not speak about the knock-on effect on lending institutions. Significant costs are also incurred to provide services to a dispersed population, including public transport, water and wastewater, school and leisure facilities. We must also consider the social cost for people who live far removed from their extended families, as well as the time consumed in commuting.

This is not exclusively a Dublin issue. A series of complaints about planning irregularities led the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government to conduct inquiries into planning in various local authorities. As a member of a county council since 1991, I am aware of the enormous pressure on the council to rezone land. Planning issues were only rarely viewed in a strategic context and those of us who fought for a more strategic approach throughout the 1990s were called all sorts of names. It was only when we managed to collaborate with the community that we were able to curb the worst excesses. The one lesson that we seem to be incapable of learning is that history repeats itself. We have to put robust legislation in place if we are to stop history repeating itself.

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