Paul Connaughton (Galway East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will need five minutes.

Deputy Timmins asked about the role of An Bord Pleanála and I wish to ask the Minister a similar question about the time An Bord Pleanála takes to make decisions on certain matters of real importance. It is topical at the moment because south Galway has been badly flooded in the past couple of days and one area along the Dunkellin river, namely, Craughwell, is under water, something which happens on a yearly basis. The Dunkellin flood relief scheme has been proposed for many years and it was with the board for a decision. Last Saturday, as the rain was coming down and the place was beginning to flood, someone said: "The only good thing that can come out of this is that if anyone from the board is watching this, when they go to make their decision next Thursday, surely they will grant it." Lo and behold, today An Bord Pleanála put back its decision by two months. It is very hard to explain to anyone in that area how the board can justify putting that decision back. I am not saying there should be a "Yes" or "No" and I am not interfering in the planning process, but how do I explain to anybody that this is how it works? One could understand people being very cynical about this. For a week, one could not look anywhere on Facebook or in the paper without seeing a politician with a sandbag but this is where we are letting people down. We have a plan and another arm of the State, the OPW, has the money to spend on it, but the board is saying it is not ready yet and it will come back to people in a couple of months. I have been around long enough to know that in a couple of months' time somebody in the OPW might say that, although we have ring-fenced the money, Bandon in Cork or somewhere else needs it just as much. The money might not be ring-fenced any more.

I do not advocate getting involved in this but surely it is time for An Bord Pleanála to make a decision when it says it will make it. This is simply unacceptable. Who is to stop the board, in two months' time, putting it off for another two months, or another two? Is there anything we can do in this legislation next week, perhaps by an amendment, to require An Bord Pleanála to make a decision on the date it says it will make a decision? It is one thing for one's house or land to be destroyed by flooding but when we start attacking people's hope of there ever being a solution, we are going down a bad road. There are people in south Galway tonight who are losing hope that anything will ever be done for them. I am 33 years of age and people have been talking about draining the Dunkellin river for 30 years. People who might not be aware of that might say to me "It is only two months" but if someone tells the people in Craughwell tonight that it will be two months before a decision is made, they will get a very short hearing.

As surely as night follows day, these floods will start to abate but it is high time the board made a decision. If a person goes into Galway County Council with a housing application, he or she will get a due date for the decision. It will be to refuse, to approve or to request further information but at least one knows where one stands. On a day like today it is a disgrace that the board tells people in south Galway, who have put up with this for many years, that it will come back to them at the end of February with a decision. It may come back and turn it down but I hope it does not and we can go ahead with the work. The OPW had better hold on to that money. If the board grants the application on 26 February, it does not change anything as one still has to do the work, which will take time, but there is no hope from what happened with An Bord Pleanála today. Is there anything the Minister of State or the Minister, Deputy Kelly, can do with this legislation this week to require the board to give a decision on a due date? What it has done today is a national scandal and completely unacceptable. People are livid in south Galway because the drainage work on the Dunkellin river should already be commissioned and it is taking the board forever to make a decision. With all the bodies that are involved in this, it is heartbreaking. For the three houses near Craughwell village which have been flooded for four or five days now, this was the day we were to give them a bit of hope. The board was considering whether to say, "Yes, go ahead with that work", and at least the people could think something might be coming, but they were told to come back in two months' time. I wonder if members of An Bord Pleanála would be happy with this decision today if their houses were flooded. Is there anything we can do through this legislation? It is unacceptable that the board keeps putting back these dates. We are destroying people's lives by taking away their hope and it is simply unacceptable.

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