Fergal Browne (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister and his official to the House. I did not lose too many night's sleep over these guidelines. There was a furore in response to the guidelines issued by the former Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Cullen. Those guidelines made no difference in Carlow. Perhaps they made a difference elsewhere. In Carlow the previous guidelines made planning more restrictive and I suspect the same will occur with these new guidelines. The only new aspect of these guidelines concerns the medical history of applicants. This aspect will be almost impossible to police. I have spoken to officials about this issue. I do not know how they are going to implement it. Carlow County Council set up a working group to consider the former Minister's proposals. It will now be interrupted in that work and will have to consider the current Minister's proposals.

Planners currently work under significant pressure. I would have preferred to hear the Minister was allocating more funds to local authorities to appoint planners. They could also have been given increased resources and better facilities. That would lead to lower turnover in staff in planning departments.

The area of planning is a nightmare at the moment. The main difficulty is that planners are coming and going. There is no continuity or consistency. I ask the Minister to increase the budget for hiring planners so they would stay longer in local authorities. Unfortunately many good planners are leaving for the private sector because of the considerable pressure they are under in local authorities. I would have been the first to congratulate the Minister if he had taken this step. That he has not done so is a big mistake.

The problems people encounter in the area of planning make life very difficult for them. They have a preliminary meeting with a planner who tells them to take certain measures. Invariably the planner has moved on by the time the planning permission is submitted. Therefore, the application is refused on other grounds and this is the most frustrating part of planning. People do what is suggested and then their application is refused because a different planner may look on the plans differently. If working conditions were improved the situation would be much better for planners and the public.