Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

This debate is timely. It is interesting that yesterday, we had the debate on the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, IBRC, report and today on this report on An Bord Pleanála. The public has lost faith in An Bord Pleanála. Villages, communities and ordinary people have no faith in An Bord Pleanála. This has been going on for a long time, where people were making objections. I am not someone who supports serial objectors and these were genuine objections. There might have been quite a number of them. A planning inspector would come down in good faith, do his or her thorough report, go back to the board and recommend that it be refused or the opposite and have the board say "No" or overturn the recommendation.

It has just been outlined that it is costing €1 million per year to run this board. It is jobs for the boys. It has never been better. Normally, they are Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil boys - to make it even better. I came from one of those great institutions, as it used to be, fadó fadó. I mentioned Surf, Daz and other stuff and washing the dirty linen here in connection with this already. There is a lot of it to be washed and there are many alleged irregularities in An Bord Pleanála.

Basically, an inspector goes down in good faith, does a report and the board rejects it. It is two men, mainly. I believe they are all men on the board. I do not know but I may stand corrected on that. They can decide the fate of a community or a development. There is something badly wrong in the state of Denmark with An Bord Pleanála. I also believe it must be disbanded. It is so endemic. The rot in it is so bad that belief and trust in the board is gone.

The Minister of State can twist or shake his head but I fervently believe and ask that it should be a new, reconstructed board in which people have faith. We should halve the salaries in this time of austerity. Why do members need that kind of money to go on it? What happened to the voluntary boards? Are there any voluntary boards any more? I used to be on a number of them when I was allowed to be on them. We find that all the boards now are on big pay, money and everything else. It is rotten. It must be disbanded and people must have confidence in it going forward.

See this speech in context