Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

When one talks to real people, not the people who inhabit this institution but real people on the streets of the villages and towns of Ireland, they are well versed in the level of corruption, greed and cronyism that exists in this State.

Most of the cases which came to light during the Mahon tribunal were in and around Dublin, but we are all well aware of planning decisions in our own constituencies which did not make sense. Those decisions left some councillors scratching their heads, wondering why and on what basis decisions were reached. Some of the planning decisions taken in this State in questionable circumstances had terrible consequences for people who in good faith went out and got mortgages to buy houses, which ended up being built on flood plains or other unsuitable sites, and who have suffered for that ever since. Planning conditions were not met in cases where people ended up living in housing estates which did not have the infrastructure to provide decent lives for those inhabiting them. It was more of the self-regulation that the economic elite seem to be able to get away with in all sorts of ways.

Last night, Deputies Calleary and O'Donovan referred to the Minister's role in regard to local development plans. Apart from the fact that Deputy Calleary’s own party passed the relevant legislation, I do agree with him regarding the fact that democratically agreed development plans can be set aside by the Minister. We saw that recently where objections from Westmeath and Laois county councils to the plans for massive wind farms were basically overridden by the Government as part of its now abandoned plan to allow the building of vast industrial scale wind farms across the midlands to generate electricity for export.

Sinn Féin drafted a Wind Turbines Bill last year, which was not opposed by the Government, although there has been no attempt to bring it forward since. Our Bill proposed that county development plans could not be overruled by the provisions of the Strategic Infrastructure Act which allows the State to push through projects if it deems them to be of sufficient economic importance. As things stand, the Minister can simply ignore, as was done in Westmeath and Laois, the concerns of democratically elected local representatives who are voicing the concerns of the people who elected them.

Reference was also made to new building regulations that came into force last year. These have acted as a huge disincentive to people who wish to build houses on their own land. That, in turn, has had a negative impact on local construction companies and builders' suppliers.

There need to be proper procedures and scrutiny through the planning process, but that should be done through the local authority rather than a person having to engage the services of a third party who will charge them a large amount of money to sign off on their plans and reports. In some cases, I have heard that it can cost up to €25,000 before any start has been made on a house. That is not unusual.

It is also important that if the Government’s plans to boost the construction sector take off, rural communities are not again subjected to the type of abuse which took place at the height of the last property bubble. We do not want to end up with more ghost estates and more houses built on flood plains. All that can be prevented through proper planning procedures. I agree that most of that can be done through existing structures once they are open and transparent. I also believe, however, that an independent planning regulator would act as a guarantor that everything is above board and can be reviewed in the event of concerns being expressed about particular proposals.

When the former Green Party leader, John Gormley, was Minister for the Environment and Local Government, he set about investigating planning irregularities in Dublin, Cork, Meath, Galway and Carlow. This Government promised to implement an independent assessment but then along came Big Phil Hogan as Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government. The next thing we knew was that there would be no independent assessment and the investigations were stopped in their tracks. The outcome of the Mahon tribunal was to recommend such an investigation. It acknowledged the need to address public concerns about planning procedures, as well as the need to establish independent oversight procedures recommended by the report of the tribunal. Even though Phil Hogan - "Mr. Don’t-Investigate-Planning-Irregularities", who was responsible for Irish Water, septic tank charges and the property tax – has gone on to an even more lucrative job, his legacy remains on the Government benches. That is why we have brought forward this motion so that conflicts of interest and other legacy issues regarding planning can be investigated independently.

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