Paul Lawless (Mayo, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the motion. I only have three and a half minutes and there are so many issues. My first point is that there are major delays with An Bord Pleanála. I know people in my constituency who have been years in the planning system. It took them months to get the planning and then more than a year waiting for a decision on an appeal to An Bord Pleanála. I appreciate the Minister has made some progress on the timeframes but many people are still waiting more than a year for decisions on appeals.

This is an emergency. People are attending my clinics every single week who are homeless and living with their parents into their 30s and 40s. They are seeking a very basic thing. It is deeply frustrating when we see such delays with planning. My question to the Minister is what is the level of accountability in this regard. If a State agency is not meeting its statutory obligations, there should be a penalty. If there is a reason for that, it needs to be adequately resourced. This is an emergency situation but it is not being treated like that at the moment.

During the week, I was struck by the comments made by the CEO of Uisce Éireann, Niall Gleeson, that objectors are costing the State billions of euro. He used a new term. It used to be NIMBYism but it is now BANANA, build absolutely nothing anywhere near anything. This is a major difficulty. People are going through the wringer when it comes to An Bord Pleanála, they finally get approval and then before they know it, there are environmental objections in judicial reviews. This is holding up progress across the country. It needs to be looked at and reviewed. We need to end the practice of lengthy delays in the planning system.

An earlier speaker referred earlier to the fact there are 100,000 acres of zoned land. The reality is that much of the zoned land in the country is zoned but there is no appetite among those people and farmers to develop that. We need to be much more proactive and we need a more flexible system. We need the local authorities and local councillors involved in the decisions on zoning land. There is no point looking on Google Maps and having planners in an office deciding what to zone if there is no appetite on the ground for this. It needs to be looked at. The previous two Governments dezoned land and they also zoned land that farmers have no interest in building on. There is never going to be movement unless we address that issue.

There is one important point that I have raised before with the Minister. There have been promises regarding wastewater treatment plants in County Mayo, for example, in Newport, and people have no idea what is happening. I met with Uisce Éireann officials recently. The issue is now with the Maritime Area Regulatory Authority. It needs to be looked at. I wish I had more speaking time but I would appreciate it if the Minister examines the issue.

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