Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank my colleagues for giving me time to speak to this Bill. I have been vocal over recent weeks in the Dáil with regard to planning. The Minister's extension is something I support. Planning in my constituency now is an absolute no-go area, however.

It is an outrageous attack on the young people who are trying to get planning permission in different areas in west Cork. They are trying to get on with their life and, as I said to the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, last week, they do not want to be any burden on the State. They want to apply for planning permission, get a mortgage, build their home and live happily in rural Ireland. Instead, due to Government policy, they are continually being refused planning permission for whatever farcical reason. There is no genuine reason for refusing permission, certainly not an architectural or environmental one. It is a scenic landscape and, as I said to the Minister of State last week, some of the houses people want to build cannot even be seen.

I wish the new county mayor, who is from west Cork, and the Cork city mayor, who were elected last week, the very best of luck. I ask both of them to sit down with the planning authority and elected representatives, start working for the people and give them the opportunity they deserve to start the rest of their lives. They do now want to be a burden, as I said, but they are being shoved into cities, where there is no issue with building skyscrapers. We see the scandalous construction that went on at the back of the convention centre. There is no question of a doubt that people can build as many apartments as they want. I do not know where the environmental or architectural aspect comes into it. It is a nightmare and I do not know what An Taisce is doing.

I will keep fighting the case for the people of rural Ireland and west Cork. They deserve the opportunity to get planning permission, whether they are from Ballinadee or Ballydehob. I plead with the Minister of State to work with us instead of against us. We need to look at what was done before, when village nuclei provisions gave people in small communities an opportunity of building. The time should be invested in considering that type of provision under the Cork county development plan, but it is not happening at the moment. We will have to fight for it. We need enough public representatives to stand up and deal with this issue as we go on.

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