Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

This quarry is not a small development: it is 20 ha. A small local community of 11 families lives near to it. Four of the family members in those 11 houses now have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and others are using inhalers. There is a significant problem with dust and on their doctors' advice the families stay inside when the wind blows predominantly towards their homes.

Some 150 trucks per day - 40 ft articulated trucks - travel to and from the quarry on small rural roads. They start at 5.30 a.m. and there is a serious problem with sleep disturbance for the families. The road conditions are also dangerous. Because there is no planning permission for the development there is no bond and no possibility of money for the remediation. One could, at this point, predict that the public purse will end up picking up the cost of this. Last night's RTÉ programme showed us the kinds of damage that can be done in the waste sector.

If this development had planning permission there would be a regime around it. There are laws in theory but in practice it is going in and out of the courts. People who comply with the law are at a disadvantage against those who break the law because they stretch it out the whole time. This case offers a breathtaking level of non-compliance. Every court, An Bord Pleanála and the local authority are being ignored. While I use this case as a specific example there is a serious problem with planning enforcement. There is great variation in levels of enforcement, depending on where one is in the State. If this site had planning permission there would be a bond and a time allowed for operation. A time would be set outside of which it could not operate. Currently we cannot even insist on the enforcement of planning conditions because there is no planning permission with conditions.

I ask that the Minister of State look at the theory to see if it is working in practice. I was a councillor since 1991 so I have dealt with the planning system for a long time. I have never once seen the local authority going in to take action or physically remove things using the section referred to by the Minister of State. I do not believe it happens anywhere. The provision is there in theory but it has to be there in practice. The local authority should be there for the public good and I do not believe that what is happening here between the courts and the local authority in this regard is in the public interest.

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