Brendan Ryan (Dublin Fingal, Labour) | Oireachtas source

This is the third time I have played handball with the Minister. I have made points, but the Minister just bats them back and says I am wrong and that he is right. I have no interest in playing handball here all night in making the same points and getting the same responses. The Minister uses language in which he tells Members that they are missing the point. That means that he gets it and that the rest of us are missing the point. It is very difficult to change anything.

In terms of being robust, rigorous and immune, the Minister has said Fingal County Council has withstood all of the tests. How has it withstood all of them? The regulatory body has not yet been set up. The tests are yet to be made and Fingal County Council might well fail them. The argument being made in favour of it is that we have An Bord Pleanála. The argument is that this new legislation is being set up with many people not having trust in Fingal County Council to do the job, but the Minister is saying one can go to An Bord Pleanála. That will be the point of last resort on all of these issues because people will not trust the council to be the competent authority. They will continue to go to An Bord Pleanála if this continues and it is very busy, as things stands. It cannot keep pace with the work it has to do. Therefore, this is the wrong decision at so many levels.

The Minister has said there is some merit in our arguments, but he has asked us to accept that this is the best choice. In other words, he is right. This is the best fit and he is right, as he says. He asks us to accept that he is right and that all of us are wrong. However, we are not all wrong. There are some intelligent people here making intelligent arguments. I have no doubt that if the Minister was in opposition at this time - I was with him in the Seanad from 2007 - he would be arguing the same point we are arguing.

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