Michael McCarthy (Labour)

I appreciate the Minister's reply. Another point of interest concerns conditions attached to a planning permission as issued by a local authority. Time and again, if a planning application was for the benefit of a family member with a housing need, in the majority of cases I have dealt with a residency clause was attached to the permission, preventing the sale or use of the dwelling by anyone other than a family member for five years. A good way of getting planning permission, in some cases, is to ensure that conditions as regards a stipulated beneficiary are strictly adhered to.

It must be possible to make another case as regards councillors. We as public representatives will get the "no hoper" cases, that is people who have no hope of getting planning permission. There may be good or bad reasons involved, but they are generally no-hopers. One discovers in such cases that one may be the eighth or ninth public representative to have been approached.

It should never be forgotten that it is the members of the local authority who compile the development plans. It was not the managers or State Departments that compiled them but the members of the local authority, as appointed by the people. This is something people quite conveniently forget at times. As regards the role of outside bodies, we have had a debate on the role of An Taisce in particular at the Joint Committee on the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. Representatives from that organisation appeared before the committee and underwent a fair degree of questioning and debate on this issue. I accept that the organisation was set up for good reasons. In recent years, however, there has been a proliferation of cases where many people believe its influence is more than it should be. In some cases this resulted in just making life more difficult for applicants.

We are all aware of the role of An Bord Pleanála. In Cork there is a particular issue involving the toxic waste incinerator which has been granted planning permission. I know it is national policy in terms of the issues associated with incineration and so on. However, in this particular case, the planning application was refused on a number of occasions by Cork County Council. There was unanimous agreement in the council chamber on a number of occasions with that particular line. The decision ended up with An Bord Pleanála for review. ABP's inspector came out and cited reasons in double figures as to why the plant should not be sited at Ringaskiddy and why the decision of the local authority should be upheld. After all of that the board, in its wisdom, decided not to take into consideration the advice of its own planning inspector and granted permission anyway. That is a sore point. It is undemocratic and I do not believe it serves the greater good at all. If one ignores the reason for the application, it is not fair that this decision was taken by a board which went completely against the advice of its own inspectorate.