Michael Kitt (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I also welcome the opportunity to return to this debate. We had a good debate last year on the planning guidelines on rural housing. We welcomed what the Minister said at the time about promoting and supporting a vibrant rural community. The guidelines on sustainable rural housing, published in March 2004, provided an opportunity to comment initially on the guidelines and to discuss relevant matters more fully with council members and management.

I welcome the development that for the first time a Minister considered examining the question of exceptional health circumstances. Representations on this point were made by people in the disability area to the Minister, Deputy Roche. I understand that these guidelines have been adhered to by the local authorities. That issue of trying to facilitate emigrants who returned home to retire or for some other reason was also considered. Consideration of these issues was welcome.

I support a proposal put forward at that time to strengthen rural villages and small towns, but we need to strongly state the need to provide water and sewerage schemes, to which Senator John Paul Phelan referred. While I favour these guidelines applying to small towns and villages I note that work on the provision of 13 small water and sewerage schemes in the Galway County Council area which was due to commence last year has been postponed until the 2007 programme. If we continue to delay the provision of these schemes, we will have great difficulty in achieving the objective of strengthening rural villages and smaller towns.

The Minister announced prior to Christmas that any scheme costing under €5 million could proceed without reference to the Department, which was a welcome announcement. However, a difficulty with that development is that small schemes are part of a bundle of schemes the cost of which will exceed €5 million. If a small scheme is removed from a bundle of schemes, planning permission for the scheme will have to be obtained again. I would like to bring that difficulty to the attention of the Minister.

Galway County Council has been allocated €68 million this year for the provision of water and sewerage schemes. The allocation for next year will be €256 million, which will include provision for the small schemes. We need to check with the management of Galway County Council, Galway being one of our bigger counties and it having many water and sewerage schemes, whether it intends to proceed with the provision of small schemes the cost of which come under €5 million or whether they will be provided as stand-alone schemes as opposed to being part of a bundle of schemes. That is critical to the provision of houses in our small towns and villages.

Many public representatives have raised the question of the provision of septic tanks and water and sewerage treatment for houses. A test known as the SR6 was used some years ago. It was a simple and effective test carried out in regard to the building of houses, particularly one-off housing. Now an EPA test from the Environmental Protection Agency is used. In some counties a small panel of people carry out this test, the cost of which adds to the cost of building a house in terms of the provision of a septic tank and a treatment area. This point should be taken up by the Minister. Perhaps he could ensure that more people are put on this panel. Is it not anti-competitive that only a small number of people in a county can carry out this specialised test? These are practical points that should be taken up.

The Minister said he is trying to make the planning process more friendly for the applicant. He has put in place a facility for pre-planning meetings which are working out well in each local authority. A simple facility was provided by councillors in Galway, which I am sure is also provided in other county council areas, whereby a potential applicant could obtain prior notice of a proposed planning application if there were difficulties involved. That prior notice facility is no longer provided in County Galway. That decision was taken by the management and majority of the councillors in the county. I do not agree with it, however, because it is useful for a public representative to be informed of a difficulty. In that way the issues can be discussed with the agent and the applicant and can perhaps be resolved. I now note that many planning applications are withdrawn. Galway County Council is reported to have a planning permission record of 80% to 85% but that does not take into consideration the fact that many applications are withdrawn because people know they will be refused. Therefore, I do not agree with some of those figures, given that the facility to which I referred is no longer allowed.

I was pleased that the Minister produced and published the Building Control Bill. As the Minister said, it is a good day for the consumer that this Bill has been published. It will assure members of the public that architects, building surveyors and quantity surveyors are properly qualified, which is a welcome development. However, I return to the issue of people qualified to carry out work related to the building of a house, whether it is the person carrying out the EPA test or building work. We should be able to get answers to the question of making it easier for an applicant to get planning permission with the putting in place of these new controls. Under this Bill, new homes and businesses will be more energy efficient and better provision will be made for people with disabilities. However, I do not know if adequate staff are in place to implement this legislation. The Bill refers to the putting in place of stricter controls on fire protection. The question of fire protection is very much on our minds following the programmes on the Stardust tragedy of 25 years ago. There is also the question of the enforcement of building codes. The Minister of State might reply on whether sufficient staff are in place to deal with the enforcement of building codes and controls on fire protection.

I want to take up the point mentioned by Senator John Paul Phelan about An Bord Pleanála. As he said, there are inconsistencies in its decisions but there are probably inconsistencies in decisions made by local authorities. We cannot say they are all producing a definite development plan or even that their decisions are in line with development plans. I would like the Minister to focus on the question of planning for amenity areas. In some parts of Galway, and I am sure the position is the same elsewhere throughout the country, some towns are suffering because of major development. There is considerable pressure involved in securing an amenity area. GAA clubs report they cannot get a second field and soccer and rugby clubs report that they cannot get an area for their members to train or play games. There is an idea that developers will be like Santa Claus or the fairy godmother and provide these facilities. That will not happen unless the county councils are pro-active and take a definite stand stating that their quite substantial development levies should go to provide sports facilities.

While there is a good system of sports grants and there are different aids from rural development groups and from local authorities, the biggest problem is in getting a sports field for a sporting body. If this position continues, with sports fields and clubs being located ever farther out of town and the people going up boithríns and bad roads to get to a field where sports can be played, it should be taken up pro-actively by the local authorities to ensure there is always enough land for sporting activities.

I thank the Minister of State for coming into the House. I am sure he will address some of these points and I hope we will have more opportunities to discuss planning issues.