John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)

I support the Bill in principle. I believe it will unclog an issue in the planning process. I want to raise an issue and Deputy Stanley has spoken on it before me. I was out on a roadway last night between Kilkenny and Durrow. I was looking at the problem of the wind farms that will be behind and in front of the 15 houses along a stretch of that roadway. The meeting was quite constructive but it struck me the cards are stacked against local communities. Deputies may be for or against wind farms and wind energy. I have to say it is okay in the right place but it was not and is not okay at that location, because of how close the windmills are to the houses, at the front and back. Taking into account the cabling and so on, it is a real issue. The community is faced with going the full round with the developers. There is little or no assistance for the community in putting together a case and pursuing the genuine complaints it has about what is happening. Essentially, the system is pitting neighbours and communities against each other. As a number of counties are concerned in this issue, consideration has to be given to what each planning authority is doing. We cannot take these farms in isolation.

I want to ask about the 2006 regulations or guidelines. When will the Government set out the guidelines to give communities a reasonably level playing field? What is happening?

The cost that is being pushed upon communities in this regard is too much. The extent to which they have to go to protect the quality of life they enjoy and the fact it can then end up with An Bord Pleanála clogs up An Bord Pleanála and takes away the democratic right of the individuals concerned to raise an objection and to be able to do so without being put into enormous debt in doing so. Deputy Stanley has a Bill before us. I ask the Minister of State and other Members of the House to let that be the Bill that will cause the general debate in this House and let the Government amend it if it so wishes. However, let us set out a course to protect the communities we serve, instead of what we are doing currently, which is alienating them.

The blockages in housing, certainly in my constituency of Carlow-Kilkenny, are down to the obstacles that are being placed in the way by Irish Water. You cannot get planning permission and you cannot develop the small towns and villages. You cannot have a community with a little bit of vision that wants to do something without going through the likes of Irish Water. That is one area that could be easily dealt with by funding the various infrastructural needs that are there.

I refer to the rezoning of land. If a developer in Kilkenny gets permission for a housing estate made up of, say, 100 houses, puts in the infrastructure for the 100 houses and builds 50 houses and lo and behold the council de-zones the land, he is then left with part of his investment and part of his land that cannot be developed. Where is the sense in that? It is just ridiculous. We are crying out for houses. That site is there but nothing is being done to alleviate that particular problem. I am sure there are many more examples of that right across the country.

Towns and villages like Johnstown, Urlingford or Inistioge, which are beautiful places to live in, and many others cannot move ahead with their developments. We have made the planning laws so complex and complicated with the 2024 legislation. Now, we will introduce this Bill and other amendments, and even amendments that are not down for discussion here because they will be taken in the Seanad. It is not right that we would rush through this. We are damaging the communities and we are alienating the people we represent.

We were promised that something would be done to ensure modular homes and log cabins would get planning permission or be allowed to go ahead with certain regulations and perhaps without the formal planning application being made. What is happening now is that those who have log cabins who tried to accommodate themselves on their own land, or on their parents' land, are being brought before the planning authority and are having to defend themselves there. They are being threatened with the log cabin being removed. It is not right. It seems that it is all stacked in favour of the developers to give them the break, without considering the people who are trying to accommodate themselves.

I am shocked by what I have heard about the new design guidelines for smaller apartments. If we are to build sustainable families and communities, they have to be allowed to live like normal human beings.

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