Jim Walsh (Fianna Fail)

Will the Leader schedule a debate on planning soon? I refer in particular to the abuses current in the planning process. Reports over the weekend indicate that for some time there has been a practice whereby people object to a planning application then withdraw their objection when offered considerable sums of money. That should not be countenanced or allowed within the planning structure. Urgent measures should be taken to outlaw the practice.

There are also reports of commercial interests, objecting, sometimes nationally, to planning applications for competitive reasons. A preliminary consideration of appeals should be introduced to the planning process to ensure that vexatious or wrongly motivated appeals are quickly discarded.

I have spent some time over the past couple of years on inquiries into atrocities that occurred here during the period of the troubles in Northern Ireland. The fact of collusion with British forces, most notably the UDR, has emerged strongly from these inquiries, most notably with the UDR. The Pat Finucane Centre yesterday issued a report yesterday highlighting the fact that at least 15% of those who were engaged in the UDR were involved in serious Loyalist paramilitary offences, including murder and bombings.

I was astonished, although perhaps I should not have been, to see that the English monarch recently attended the stepping down of the regiment as a mark of honour to it. That was inappropriate and added insult to the injuries of the victims of those atrocities. I condemn it and hope others in this House would do the same. It fuels the sectarianism that blights Northern Ireland.