Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I would like to speak to the section of the Bill relating to the Minister's control over county development plans and having the final say. I have serious concerns about that. Councillors are elected, and I wish every councillor who was elected in the past week the very best going forward. The councillors who are elected should have the final say as to how a county development plan is put together. When I was on the council in 2014, that is the way it was. Councillors had a very big role in how county development plans are put together, but now it looks as if they are overshadowed completely. That leads to the situation we find ourselves in that people are finding it increasingly difficult to get planning, so it will come down to the Minister.

I should not be picking on any one party, but imagine the Green Party was in government. They would make sure nobody was cleared to get planning permission in any county development plan and would make it hugely difficult. We have serious issues with low density and high density in our towns and villages. We desperately need extra housing. For example, in Clonakilty, people who have property inside the development area are now being told they must have a low density build when they could easily have high density and have some beautiful much-needed homes in the Clonakilty area. That is an outrageous situation they find themselves in that they are inside the development boundary but the county development plan being dictated by others other than the local councillors - I do not know what the councillors' role will be going forward - means they now will end up having low-density homes and fewer homes for people who desperately need homes in a place such as Clonakilty and its surrounds.

The situation I see is that it is more often squeezing out the local councillor. I wish well the family members of the Deputies in front of me who were elected to their local authorities: Councillor Máirín McGrath, Councillor Jackie Healy-Rae, Councillor Johnny Healy-Rae, Councillor Maura Healy-Rae, Councillor Daniel Sexton, and Councillors John and Danny Collins. They are finding it extremely difficult now to negotiate on behalf of their constituents. They are looking at county development plans where they are being overpowered as such. They have people looking for planning in their local area and they are being refused. That is a terrible upset to a family.

I met a lady in Bantry recently when I was canvassing. She said she was thinking of not voting and I asked her why. Her son came home. He had lived 25 years in Ballydehob, went abroad and came back home with a partner or wife - I am not sure it they were married - and children. He tried to get planning because he was going to build on the farm at home and he was refused. To make a long story short, every kind of codology was put in front of him to make sure he could not get his planning and his mother said, "Do you know what? I do not think I will vote." To be quite honest, I could not blame her even though I knew damn well it might lead to the loss of a vote to ourselves. It is hard to blame somebody like that. Broken-hearted, they packed their bags and left our country. That is an astonishing disgrace by a planning authority and by a county development plan that would refuse that man permission in the little bit of ground he had so that he could live his life here, work here, bring up his children here and boost the local economy by having people living here permanently.

I genuinely do not know if the Minister of State is listening, because this is a serious crisis. If this section of the Bill erodes the councillors' say and gives the power to the Minister, God almighty, that is a shocking situation. It is happening increasingly in local authorities. I was at so many doors, as we all are as politicians if we are trying to get elected people belonging to us, and although we are trying our best, people were asking what exactly can councillors do in relation to planning. It is becoming increasingly difficult because there is a Government here that is adamant that every opposition will be shown to people. If they want to have a little log cabin at the bottom of their garden in their parents' home to get them off to a start, that is refused and everybody will be chased out of their garden. If they want to build a home, come back here to live or are living here already, every difficulty is put in front of them. I had one person on an island and it cost him €10,000 to apply for planning and he was refused. When I asked the person who came to me about it why he did not contact me sooner, the man said, "When we spent €10,000 and did everything above board, surely be to God that should have got us planning without having to talk to any politician", but sadly it did not. That is the situation we find ourselves in when it comes to planning in this country: the local councillor or local TD has no more say in it. We had little village nuclei and little areas like that where people had some hope of getting a start in their life, and the Government is walking our own people out of our own country because it continuously refuses. I presume it is the same in Mayo, in Galway and in every other rural area as it is in west Cork.

I will oppose this because we have to give the power back to the people who are on the ground talking to those who desperately want to get their lives off to a start. If the Minister of State does not do that, he is doing an injustice to those people. I should not have to talk to that woman from west Cork who had to see her son fly out with this family - pack his bags, load a trailer and get the hell out of our country - because our people, this country and this Government have turned their back on the ordinary good-living people of this country who want to provide and play a part in the local economy. As I said to that woman, it was hard to argue with her when she said she not want to vote after that. God almighty, how could you ask for a vote after that? It is so shameful. That is because of policies that the Government has put in place that are anti-local, anti-rural and, sometimes, anti-Irish.

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