Joe McHugh (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister to the House. I acknowledge his contribution in accepting that there is a tradition of dispersed planning patterns in rural Ireland. Rural people want to continue to live in rural areas. Particular areas have suffered greatly from population decline in the last 20 years. In Glenvar, where my mother was born, the national school has closed down and there has been severe population decline. It is an indictment of the rural planning process that existed in the past. We had a tradition of clachans in different parts of Donegal, whereby clusters of five and six houses were built together. This is mentioned in the document on rural planning and is accepted. A young couple, living in Dublin, want to return to Glenvar in Donegal. They are entering an area suffering from serious population decline, yet their planning application was turned down. They have been facilitated and they have worked with planners and public representatives to come up with a solution. However, they have still not been granted planning permission.

Rather than just noting that Glenvar is a place of population decline, there must be a building plan for such areas. The planners may have a problem with building in Glenvar, but the plan for the area is driven by the applicants, who do not have a template from which to work. There should be a focused plan for different areas and more than words are needed to develop them. There should be a medium to long term effort to get the school and the post office going again.

The Minister made a point about expediting planning applications in a courteous manner. There is word on the street that applicants are not given due consideration and do not have access to planners. I believe that the proper resources are not in place in certain places. In my own electoral area of Milford, 1,400 applications were processed last year by only two planners. Rather than noting that there is no courteous service, the reality is that there is an inadequate supply of planners and staff.

The electronic measures introduced in the guidelines are working. The Minister will get some positive feedback from Donegal. People can go on-line and watch the planning application come through the system. It is a very transparent way of processing the applications. In conclusion, I hope the Minister takes the story I mentioned about Glenvar into account. It is parochial, but it would be remiss of me to mention it as my mother lives nearby.