Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

In other words, the Minister of State's Department completely ignores the data it collects and the analysis it carries out. The Minister of State continues to trot out mantras without the slightest evidence. I am afraid the evidence produced by his Department shows there is no problem with planning permission. The number of planning permissions being granted is increasing dramatically, it far exceeds the number of completions and the number of refusals is a tiny proportion of that figure. The Minister of State made a point about rural Ireland earlier. Let us take Longford as an example. The refusal rate is 10% from a total of 1,747 applications. In fact, there were more planning applications in Longford than there were in most Dublin local authority areas so not even the Minister of State's point on urban and rural areas is correct. It is just not true but he keeps saying it. If IGEES believes speculators are really the ones determining things, then the Government's policy is simply articulating the views of the speculators.

See this speech in context