Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

When people are dealing with the State, lodging appeals, tax clearance or whatever, the State lays down very strict deadlines. If people do not comply with these deadlines their applications are rejected or, in the case of a late tax return, a financial penalty is applied.

However, when the State is dealing with the citizens, it often totally ignores their fundamental right to get things in time. In this regard, I could mention citizenship applications, passport applications, forestry licence applications and so on, but today I want to concentrate on a slightly different issue, namely, the inordinate delay with planning applications. There is a statutory objective of 18 weeks laid down for a decision. Applications for leave to-----

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