Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I expected great things from the Minister in his office. I wished him well and still do, but dealing with legislation and with two issues, trying to put the good into the bad, is a type of liquorice allsorts. If we could take out the bad parts, it would be great, but we cannot. There is an effort to try to deal with evictions and deal with the situation of people who are forced onto the housing lists and are on them forever without getting anywhere. However, the Minister changed the Bill fundamentally from what was introduced in the Seanad. It had three pages, but there are now many Parts in it. There was also no pre-legislative scrutiny. It is a bad way to do business. If the Minister were in the Opposition and somebody else was where he is now, he would be railing against it. Why is the system of governance so dysfunctional?

The Minister said he does not want to be responsible for €15,000 per day in fines, and rightly so. He should not be. Why did it take so long to get this rectified? I realise the past eight months have been difficult due to Covid, but why did it take so long to rectify something like that? Why are we dragged kicking and squealing to resolve some issues in Europe when on other issues we are the first to implement them? If it is to do with farm inspections or the like, we are leading the posse to terrorise farmers. We are doing it even in the middle of the Covid pandemic, and I understand there is an EU directive that only vital inspections should be carried out at this time. One can pick and choose. As I said, it is like a pick-and-mix or liquorice allsorts.

With regard to the planning situation, people's rights are being trodden on. Then we can add the situation with public meetings. The Minister tells us it is only for emergencies, such as Covid-19, but once the practice is established, unfortunately, it can last and be made to last. I am very concerned about that. We should not have it. The Minister should be able to pass legislation to give this space, be it eight, ten or 15 months of a delay. My county's urban planning is already delayed, so why can the Minister not introduce legislation? He introduced emergency legislation to remove the moratorium and legislation relating to the hearsay clause in the middle of a Health Act to suit the vultures.

The enforcement that is taking place is shambolic in the extreme. As regards developers who built estates, there are a couple of estates in Tipperary town and they are approaching their seventh or eighth Christmas without lights. Imagine trying to find the way around the estate. They are fine estates really, but there were problems with the sewers and the drainage and no lights. It is shame that families have to live through that. It is the same in an estate in Monard in Tipperary. It is ten years without lights. Imagine the danger of that.

In addition, there is a situation in Tipperary that is unreal. It is a shooting range, the Woodlands Range Sports and Recreations Club. There have been criminal convictions of the owners and managers of the club for reckless trading with guns. Windows in cars have been shot through. The neighbours there have objected. They are afraid of their lives, but the council has been dragging its feet for the past two years. It goes into court every couple of months and agrees to a postponement. There is no follow-up. From talking to the senior executive officers, they say they have engaged a solicitor. There is a big firm of solicitors and it sends in a junior solicitor. He just nods and will get paid for the day, while the case is put off repeatedly. The last day was Tuesday this week. The neighbours have made the objections and the planning has been refused because it is dangerous and there is no access to it, for good reasons. However, it is still going on two years later. Families cannot get closure. There are criminal convictions, and I salute the gardaí, Superintendent Whelan and the inspector from Cahir Garda station, who had to do this.

A lethargic effort was involved in getting the enforcement finished. They rock into court every couple of months and the solicitor walks in and nods the head and there is a fee for the day and it is put off instead of dealing with it. There is no specified end date, and everything is found to be outside planning. If enforcement proceedings are taken, there should be a set timeline for them to be concluded, unless someone takes a judicial review or challenges the process in a higher court. We must specify in legislation that a conclusion will be brought to an enforcement situation, especially if there is a dangerous situation involving the use of high-powered weapons being used on a site that has been trading recklessly. People are afraid and they have no solace or redress.

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