Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I want to follow on from some of the earlier speakers who spoke about consistency throughout the country. Definitely, consistency is needed. There are plenty of examples in my own county of Wexford. I will give the Minister one example where a son or daughter wants to move into the family farm and the parents want to build a small bungalow or small house somewhere on the family farm. They are now being forced to build a granny flat onto their family home. I do not think that is acceptable. There might be younger children in the family. They might not be living in the family home but they come home for weekends or whatever. It is only right and proper that whoever is going to be living in the farmstead would have their own home, and that mother and father - the original owners - are not being forced to build a granny flat onto the farmstead. That is unacceptable.

Deputy Fitzmaurice was right in what he said about consistency in different counties. We are encouraging people to relocate out of the cities, maybe back to where they were born and reared in rural Ireland, to build back up our rural communities. However, some of these planners act like dictators. The director of planning in Wexford is not, but some younger planners are like dictators. They determine who lives and who does not live in rural Ireland. I would plead with the Minister and his officials to look at exactly what is happening in counties throughout the country, to look at the examples, to look at the refusals and to look at why they are being refused. They are being refused because some of these people act in a way they should not. They have some draconian powers.

Deputy Durkan spoke in this House last week. In fairness to the Ceann Comhairle, it is not often that Ceann Comhairle will cross the boundary and say yes, we need a debate on this issue. We need a proper debate on this issue. I hope that in the new year we will have a proper debate in this House on the planning guidelines and what is happening throughout the country. In this debate, Members should be allowed to stand up and have 15 or 20 minutes and should not be forced to limit their speaking time to two or three minutes.

I can assure the Minister that every rural Deputy in this House has a huge number of examples from which the Minister and his officials can direct policy. I sit down with some of my colleagues in government or opposition, and we all have similar examples to what I face in Wexford, what Deputy Durkan faces in Kildare, what Deputy Fitzmaurice is facing in Roscommon or what Deputy Ring faces in Mayo. I ask the Minister, who is a member of Cabinet, that we have that debate in the House, that he speak to the Government Whip to allow for a proper debate and time here for Members to be able to speak their minds on this. This is the House where we represent our constituents. It is only right and proper that we be given the opportunity to debate that issue here in the House.

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