Feargal Quinn (Independent)

My point is that we do not always appreciate what benefits we get from Europe. It is worth our while ensuring that we do so, even as we take credit for doing things ourselves. One of the annoyances is that other countries seem to get things done much more quickly than we, and I can therefore understand the need for this Bill.

Let us call a spade a spade. I have no doubt that the Bill represents a curtailment of democratic rights that we have enjoyed in the planning process for the best part of 40 years. At a stroke, it removes an entire layer from the existing process of securing planning permission for a project. It also removes the local element of the planning process completely, the principle that all projects are examined by the relevant local authority before being considered on appeal by the national body. I hope the Government, which shares its predecessors' habit of spinning everything, will not obscure those facts.

The issue is not that we are curtailing democratic rights, since that goes without saying, but whether such a curtailment is necessary in the national interest. The Minister will argue that it is such. If so, we must face the fact that we are treading on ground many consider sacred. That should not prevent us from doing so if it is the right thing. However, we should acknowledge the seriousness of the issues. If we are grown up about this, we should admit that people never like to have removed from them something to which they have grown used. We once understandably criticised the Unionists for their slogan "What we have, we hold". The truth is that the attitude in question is a natural and human reaction to a situation that is all too common.

I remember when my company introduced loyalty cards. Their great benefit is that one can identify good customers and their habits. There is a great temptation to give very good customers gold cards, not so good customers silver cards, and others bronze ones. I experienced that with British Airways many years ago. One year when I did a great deal of flying, I ended up with a gold card and was very pleased with myself. The trouble was that the following year, having been demoted, I did not get a gold one.