Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am not going to be shouting at the Minister because I want to work with him. I want to try to reach a solution whereby we are all working together to ensure people are able to have homes, whether that is through people building homes for themselves, the local authority building them or private people who want to own properties and rent them out. We must try to have a mix. The shouting and roaring of the Opposition has failed and the workings of the Government have failed, so we need to look at this in a cold, hard, practical manner.

I ask the Minister when we are going to stop the practice of Deputies objecting to houses being built. It does not make sense for some Deputies to be saying they want houses, on the one hand, only for the same Deputies to subsequently be objecting to houses, on the other. That is the total opposite of what should be happening. It must be called out for what it is. Many people are looking at it and asking why Deputies are objecting to houses being built.

Another issue is that in County Kerry, for example, Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, is interfering, meddling and sticking its nose into our business when young people want to apply for planning permission. Farmers are experiencing this because of where their lands are located. An example of this is on the side of the Ring of Kerry road. The only entrance these people can have is onto the Ring of Kerry road or maybe a road off that. That young boy or girl is getting up in the morning and going to work. He or she might be farming full-time or part-time, but he or she is not looking for the Minister to do anything for him or her. What he or she wants is to get a piece of paper with "planning permission granted" written on it. That is all these people want from the State, but what they are getting is TII sticking its big, horrible nose into their business. It is not the Minister's fault, but I am asking him to talk to the Minister for Transport, who does not like houses, does not like cars and does not like anything. At this stage, I would say that he does not like himself. TII will have to be hauled in and told to stop writing its dirty, horrible observations, as it refers to them. These are outright objections. The planners we are dealing with - and I thank the planners in Kerry-----

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