Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I also want to thank the Regional Group for bringing forward this timely and long overdue debate. We are talking about different incentives to take over shops and return them to high-street trading. Tipperary town was mentioned earlier and every town and village is suffering from a lack of regeneration. Two things will happen if we get a shop that has been closed for years opened or get people living in it. We will get a living town back and footfall will be brought to the shops that are trying to survive there. I hear people on the left talking about this rule and that rule and about a right to a home. There is a right to a home but we cannot seize people's property. We complain about what is going on in Russia and different places but we must make haste slowly and do the things we can do.

We must stop the blockages in planning. A huge issue is that An Bord Pleanála has no statutory requirement for when a case might be assessed and the Minister of State must address this. It gives a date at first but once that date has been passed, there is no statutory obligation for when it must make a decision. I have a number of cases in my county that are waiting on An Bord Pleanála and there is a huge backlog.

Ní neart go cur le chéile and we must work on this together. We must stop this knee-jerk reaction whereby people think they can take over someone's home and decide that because it is a constitutional right we can do a bypass and not have a referendum on this. People worked hard to build, buy and achieve their houses. We need more houses built but then the same people are objecting to houses being built as well. They want jam on both sides of their bread. We must have a meaningful and worthwhile debate on this and cut out the blockages. We should allow people in the country to build if they have the wherewithal and the site to do so and if they are able to get a loan or get funding or if they have their own funds because the banks are not helping. There are a lot of blockages but a lot of hot air is being spoken here as well.

See this speech in context