Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome this legislation, but the discussion has been quite broad. I, too, will speak about the planning system more generally. I have to confess, at the outset, that I am one of the 30,000 or so people with an application before An Bord Pleanála at the moment. We are trying to build a family home. I will say no more about that, but I should declare it on the record of the Dáil. I think it is wrong that, for a €20 objection fee, a person can take a project through the ringer. It could be a project to build a family home or to develop a multimillion euro piece of public infrastructure. With the payment of a €20 fee, a person can object and bring a project the whole way through the objection process and the appeals process. The objector still has a foot in the door if he or she wants to go all the way to judicial review. There should be a scaled fee, depending on where the objector is based. For those who live locally, the fee should be €20, but for those on the opposite side of the country, the fee should be far higher. I will reference an example. Mr. Peter Sweetman, of The Swan and the Snails Limited, which has its headquarters on Lower Rathmines Road, Dublin, is a serial objector and a NIMBY. He has objected to flood defences in Clonlara, County Clare.

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