Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am glad to get the opportunity to raise with the Taoiseach problems that exist for people wishing to obtain planning - the basic right to put a roof over their heads - and the guidelines that planners have to recognise that allow young people to get planning permission.

I am also glad to get the opportunity to highlight the problem that we have with one or two serial objectors in Kerry. Even though Kerry County Council grants permission, this person appeals it to An Bord Pleanála and it always seems to happen that the planning permission is refused then. In Tomies, the late Seán Sweeney - I will name him because he went on television and went public about it - fought tooth and nail to get planning permission for his son. It was granted by Kerry County Council on two or three occasions and it was objected to and refused. That man has not yet got planning. A man from Muckross got permission from Kerry County Council and this serial objector objected. He was working 6 km away in Liebherr's and he made that objection. He lost his planning permission.

Another McCarthy family in Lauragh Upper had 365 acres, all in special areas of conservation, SAC, but Kerry County Council, in its wisdom, granted permission. An Taisce, someone 72 miles away, appealed this decision, the decision was lost and they never got permission. The young fellow, who wanted to live beside his mother after his father dying, was denied that right. Lauragh school is in trouble. Does the Taoiseach see that this rural settlement policy is denying several people? For a couple from Glencar - they are only 2 miles from Killorglin and 2 miles from Beaufort - it was a massive struggle to get permission in Beaufort even though they were only 2 miles away from there.

The Government tells us to build in the villages and the towns but with places like Kilcummin, there is no sewage treatment plan. You will not get permission in Glenbeigh, Abbeydorney or Brosna and yet the places are practically desolated. Curra was promised in 1986. For former Deputy Tom Fleming and me, Scartaglin was number three on the list; now it is on no list. Half of the massive town of Castleisland is on septic tanks. However, to say that people should move into towns is wrong too because the State does not have the infrastructure there.

We must appreciate young couples who go to the trouble of building a house for themselves as we know the cost and the trouble it takes to build social houses for people who cannot afford to build a house for themselves. In many instances, the trouble is to get planning. We must do something about it.

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