John Minihan (Progressive Democrats)

We believe people born and reared in a rural area, including those with no access to family lands, people who have lived in a rural area for seven years or more and have forged strong links with the local community in that time, and emigrants who return to the rural area in which they grew up, as the Minister referred to, should be seen as "local" people. A rural dweller who has no family land on which to build should be allowed to build on any site within 8 km of his or her family home, subject to the usual environmental and traffic safety provisions. Nobody other than local people, as defined in the manner we have suggested, should be allowed to build in areas of the country which are under development pressure, subject to compliance with the various environmental and safety regulations. Housing need in such areas that is generated by nearby urban areas should be met in designated settlement centres. All people should be free to build in rural areas which are not under development pressure and are facing population stagnation, as long as they comply with the usual environmental and road safety standards. People should be encouraged to move to areas experiencing population decline. The planning system should not pose any impediment to them doing so.

The Progressive Democrats Party is in favour of an appropriate broadening of the interpretation of "housing need". A family that seeks to move ten or 15 miles, perhaps because of a new job, should not be disqualified from developing a new rural home because they have an existing house. At present, such a family could fail the housing need test. We do not believe farming should be seen as the only profession that qualifies a person for planning permission in rural areas. Approximately 14% of the workforce was engaged in agriculture in 1991, but that figure now stands at 5%. If farming is seen as the only profession that enables one to get planning permission, we may well be providing for a slow death sentence for rural Ireland. People of other professions and none should be made equally welcome.

My party also proposes the establishment of a new appeals process in respect of all applications for rural housing. Responsibility for hearing appeals on rural housing should be taken from An Bord Pleanála and given to regional boards of appeal based in the constituencies used for election to the European Parliament which are outside Dublin. The new appeals boards should include representatives of the planning and architecture industries, people with environmental or scientific backgrounds, representatives of rural organisations and development groups and people from the legal profession. Rural organisations and development groups include the Leader programme, Macra na Feirme, the Western Development Commission, the county community forums and the IFA, for example.

If we are to provide for openness and transparency in the planning process, details of all planning decisions should be posted on the Internet, along with the reason for those decisions. The names and contact details of the engineers and architects who submitted the original proposals should be published on-line. League tables of successful and unsuccessful planning applications by architectural and engineering firms should be posted on the website of every county council to ensure people have appropriate information at their disposal to make informed choices when selecting the firms with which they wish to work. The Progressive Democrats believe such a system is necessary.

I echo the Minister's comments about applications for permission to build houses to accommodate the special needs of people with disabilities. Other than the necessary environmental and road safety regulations, no impediments should be put in the way of the sanctioning of planning permission to such people. Planning policy must take account of the needs of the disabled in a sensitive and caring fashion.

Senator Brennan outlined the evidence and logic that underpins the Progressive Democrats' call for the establishment of an independent national planning monitoring committee on a statutory basis, as well as the establishment of a national water and sewerage services authority. I look forward to hearing the views of other Senators on these two proposals. The points I have made reflect the opinion of the Progressive Democrats that rural dwellers should have the same rights as urban dwellers when deciding where to live. That view is articulated in the party's rural planning policy, which was launched last month. The policy is based on the fundamental principle that local people who live and work in an area, or have strong family ties with an area, are entitled to build homes in that area unless there are compelling safety or environmental reasons they should not. The adversarial planning permission culture that has been adopted by some county councils must be changed. Incentives should be put in place to attract families into areas of declining population. Farming should not be the only profession that qualifies people for planning permission in rural areas. We must intervene to halt the death sentence that has been given to rural Ireland. That fate has not been prevented by current planning regulations. There has been a great deal of discussion on the unsustainable nature of one-off rural housing, yet the huge growth in the commuter belt around Dublin is truly unsustainable. Here massive estates are built without the physical and social infrastructure needed to support new communities. These areas, as they balloon, will lead to problems for future generations.

The Government has done more than any previous Administration to meet the rocketing housing demand faced by Ireland. The opening line of the motion is an acknowledgement that Ireland's record levels of economic and population growth are creating the challenge of meeting record housing accommodation demand throughout the country. I ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Roche, to look favourably on our suggestions and proposals to see how they can enhance our efforts to meet this challenge.