Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

For the information of Deputy Boyd Barrett, 203 appeals were submitted in 2019, whereas 303 have been submitted in 2020 to date. Deputy Michael Healy-Rae hit the nail on the head. We have no problem with appeals. We understand the planning process, as was noted earlier. There has to be a right for people to protect their property, families and communities, but 80-plus appeals should not be lodged by one person. Surely these people are educated and smart; we will not take that from them. They have found a major deficiency in the legislation. We tried to amend it by providing for penalties but we have not even got to discuss that.

To pick up on the points made by Deputies Carthy and Cairns, I will not take lectures from either of them. We saw, during the debate on the first amendment, that the Government was dead set against any amendments being accepted. That is why we are stuck on this. It is not a filibuster; we are so horrified. Deputy Carthy made the excuse that he had not been in the House for the past day or two. In the Seanad again last week, the Minister of State said two amendments of 103 would be accepted. We knew, therefore, that we would be wasting our time here, so we might as well dig in our heels here and do what we have done. It is shocking. We represent people too. Sinn Féin is not the only Opposition party. In fact, I wonder whether it is part of the Government at the moment. I am putting that point to Deputy Carthy.

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