Mary White (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State. He earned the honour himself with his dedication to the people of Cavan over the years. They deserve to have a Minister who can voice their opinions to Government. I wish him every happiness and continued success.

I want to speak briefly on three points. The first is the planning application process. The second point is about breaches of planning regulations and the final point is about the issue of rural dwellers.

The new Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Roche, said on his appointment that he would examine the realigning of the entire planning applications process. He said he would like to simplify the process, for example, by providing for a standard planning application form for all the various planning authorities. After the standard form has been put in place, the next stage of the realignment of the process would involve providing for on-line applications. The on-line form would allow people to track the progress of their applications. I compliment the Minister in advance on the introduction of the on-line planning application form.

I draw the attention of the House to a serious breach of building control regulations. The former Minister, Deputy Noel Dempsey, decided in 2002 that the front door and living room door of every new domestic house should be wide enough to facilitate wheelchair access and that every new house should have a wheelchair accessible downstairs toilet. Mr. Michael D. Ringrose of People with Disabilities in Ireland has indicated that the building regulations are not being implemented on the ground. When Mr. Tom Power of the Waterford branch of People with Disabilities in Ireland studied housing planning applications in Waterford, he found that none of them complied with the conditions I mentioned. I appreciate that building regulations do not have to be part of a planning application, but it is somewhat ridiculous if those designing houses do not provide for wheelchair access. The front door, living room door and downstairs toilet should all be accessible to wheelchair users. I have said on many occasions that the human rights of people with disabilities are not being implemented in many spheres of life, even though certain rules are in place.

I would like to speak on behalf of rural dwellers, who are this country's real conservationists because they care for the countryside on our behalf on a daily basis. Dr. Seamus Caulfield, who is an archaeologist in UCD, wrote about this issue in Positive Planning for Rural Houses in which he stated:

Like all development in rural Ireland, rural housing should be strictly controlled. There are certain areas where housing should not be allowed such as in extended ribbon development along main roads out of towns and villages. Along the western seaboard where dispersed villages are often separated by miles from the nearest neighbouring village, housing should not be allowed in the open (usually) bogland between, where there is no record of settlement in modern times.

Dr. Caulfield and the members of the Irish Rural Dwellers Association have been accused of being anti-conservationists and wanting a free-for-all. The quotation I cited from Dr. Caulfield demonstrates that this is not the case. The rural environment in England, Scotland and Wales is different from that in Ireland. Dr. Caulfield states, "The tradition of settled dispersed community goes back at least five and a half thousand years in Ireland; four times longer than the tradition of nucleated settlement in towns or street villages." An Taisce and many planners in this country want us to pursue the nucleated form of village settlement which has pervaded in England from Roman times and in mainland Europe for over 7,000 years. As I said, the dispersed village has been part of the social fabric of Ireland for thousands of years.

The Environmental Protection Agency gives figures to refute the argument made by An Taisce that our finite land area will be eaten into if we allow settlement in dispersed villages, or if we spread houses all over the place as An Taisce would see it, rather than concentrating development in a central area. The EPA figures put an end to that argument. We are all aware that the terrestrial land of Ireland is continually subject to change and that there was substantial development — a great deal of infrastructure was put in place and many houses were built — during the Celtic tiger phase of the economy.

The 1990 database of Irish land cover was updated in 2000. The proportion of total land area covered in artificial surfaces increased from 1.5% to 1.9% during that period, as a result of urban sprawl and improvements in infrastructure, such as port facilities. Given that just 1.9% of land in this country is covered by human development, there is no fear that we will run out of land supply. We should support dispersed village communities by allowing people to build their houses in such areas. It is natural that houses in dispersed villages will die over time, so we should allow people to replace them by building new houses. Human settlements have been built on just 1.9% of Irish land. There is no basis for An Taisce's argument that we should all move to bigger villages. There are many other arguments in this regard, but that is the key one because it stands out in my mind.