Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Councillor Fitzgerald replaced his late dad on the council, so the service in the family goes back even longer. I wish his mum, who is in her 95th year, well too.

I have minor concerns about the ten-year cycle for the development plans. It is very long. I know the plans can be amended but they seldom are and it is an arduous task.

We will be submitting amendments on these issues. Confidence in An Bord Pleanála is at an all-time low. I do not think changing the name in Gaeilge will do much to help it. There will certainly be a bigger board but the appointment of board members is another question. Where is the democracy in this? Is there any way for ordinary, intelligent people who want to have a say to do so, and not just planners and people with these degrees? We need a bit of common sense as well. We need to hear the views of ordinary people because they will have to live with the impact of what happens.

We have a Government policy but the Government will not tell us what the new guidelines are for rural planning. These were promised before the last election. It is to the Government's eternal shame that it did not do that because it is so unfair. It is delaying the building of houses and many developments in rural Ireland. The Government will not build houses for people. It cannot do so for everyone. There are people in rural areas who want to build their own houses, but the Government will not let them. There are many other things the Government will not let people in rural Ireland do either.

Then there is Irish Water and the treatment plants and the unfair and discriminatory practices of the EPA. Its representatives are going around demonising people. Any farmer who is polluting should be prosecuted, but the county councils and Irish Water plants are belching raw sewage into rivers and streams all over the place. A map of the impacted areas was produced recently, but it left out my county. There are about 60 of these plants in County Tipperary, although they are not plants at all but simply tanks. They were given the green light. That is unfair, wrong and deceitful. A public body should not be allowed to do this. It should be honest, go out and assess the situation properly and tell the truth. Why cover up the fact that Irish Water and the county councils are by far the biggest polluters? In some cases, though, they are then prosecuting farmers and others. They are also going around inspecting people's septic tanks. People who put in a septic tank look after them. They want them working well in their property and want to repair them if they are faulty. They do not need to have inspectors coming around telling them what to do.

This is the legacy of Phil Hogan. When we had democracy in the form of the town councils, Phil Hogan abolished it. The Minister of State voted in favour of that. Deputy Brendan Howlin's party supported it as well, but now, in fairness, he has said this is the biggest regret of his public life. The town councils had a fundamental role to play. They were costing a fraction of the implementation of the new system, whatever it was called. It was anti-democratic anyway and a bad blow against local democracy. Many people cut their teeth on the town councils and then went on to be county councillors, Teachta Dála and Seanadóirí. I hope the Government parties will have the restoration of the town councils in their manifestos, but I have little faith in that happening.

My county was then amalgamated. It was the ruination of our town of Cluain Meala, the vale of honey. All the powers and finance were taken from it. There was a budget of €15 million. Councillor Niall Dennehy, to be fair to him, and his Former Local Authority Members Éire, FLAME, organisation, took a case to the High Court at the time and I supported him. We were frustrated in finalising our case because of the parliamentary replies we received. It is still there. I had the privilege of serving a High Court summons on the former Minister, Phil Hogan. He was in the Members' bar at lunchtime, eating his lón. I served him the summons there. We brought the case but of course we could not get the facts and figures we wanted from the replies to our parliamentary questions. We were fighting city hall. It was a reprehensible decision and the people were the poorer for it.

We in the Rural Independents have major issues with the size of this Bill, the inadequacies and gaping holes in it and the fact that lone rangers can object to good and necessary developments that have not got planning permission.

I thank Brian Ó Domhnaill in our office and my team for trying to evaluate the Bill. We only got it mid-week. It is a huge piece of work. I am not condemning the officials because a lot of work has gone into it. Legislation of this type must be meaningful, however. An Bord Pleanála must be fair, transparent and firm and there must be no shadows cast over any of its decisions. The board went down to five members at one stage. That is so small. The question most people ar fud na tíre have is cén fáth a thainig an inspector ann. When the inspector comes down and does a report, whichever way it goes, that is a report from a professional person, but the board then turns around, rubbishes it and turns it upside down. It has done this both ways at different times. That is demoralising and it must be demoralising for the inspectors as well. They are out to do their job. The board has not seen the site or had time to evaluate the different issues relating to the environment, roads and everything else, you name it, yet it tears up the report.

Is there some cosy arrangement with big businesses like telephone companies and others that get this work? It is the same with the wind farms. They seem to be able to ride roughshod over county development plans where areas are zoned. They must know they are going to get permission and they will spend money on planning in this area and many others which have been zoned as unsuitable for planning. They lodge applications, have information meetings and drop notes to every house. That is right. They should do that.

People must feel they have some say. That is democracy at work. Sometimes they do not get a say or feel they have respect where things are seem as a fait accompli and it is stated that something is going to happen so people might as well sign over land, rights and whatever else. It is very unfair.

There have been a lot of issues with planning over the years. I have not even touched on the awful logjam. At a time when there are 13,000 people homeless, I understand more than 22,000 homes have been held up in An Bord Pleanála. That is ridiculous. This should have been sorted out two years ago. People are waiting two years for a decision from An Bord Pleanála. People get a date and then phone only to be told a decision has been put back by another three months, and then another three months. I am not blaming the staff. I heard figures from the Minister regarding how many staff An Bord Pleanála has recruited. It is not all about staff. There is no efficiency. I welcome the staff who are there, but they must be efficient and there must be better methods of dealing with this. We must not put people off.

There was an unwritten rule that people had an expectation of a result from An Bord Pleanála within four or six months. There are statutory dates in the county council. I know there are statutory dates in the Bill, but I hope they will be met. It is vital for investors or private individuals who want to build a house to have some kind of timescale. Families are being held up. People want to get married, settle down and have children, go to schools and keep areas going. They need to have certainty, but they do not have it. Cities are overflowing with people. There are crowds and all kinds of issues.

There is a lot of work to be done. We look forward to putting forward amendments and I hope we get a reasonable debate on them. I hope the Bill will not be guillotined, like most legislation is, because it is too important. Legislation like this is not passed every year and it is a long time since we had any Bill like this. I welcome it, and thank the Minister for it, but we need rural planning guidelines because no matter what legislation we pass if we do not have certainty about rural guidelines in terms of what we can build and how we can keep it alive, this will not work. I am not talking about mad building; I am talking about sensitive building. If we have no guidelines we have nothing to work on. Planners, families and communities want this. We need the Bill.

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