Denis O'Donovan (Fianna Fail)

I am thinking about the old days of the bastable, to be good to my mother, when it would be made over the fire with the sods of turf on top and if the fruit sank, we would have no Christmas because there would be tears, etc. I am worried that in this respect we are adding an ingredient that will ensure that the fruit will sink and we will have a result we never anticipated. Senator Cummins is correct to bring this to our attention.

Let us stand back and reconsider this. On other issues we see already that An Bord Pleanála is overloaded with the result that people are left waiting four, six or 12 months when an appeal is submitted on a simple rural planning application, for instance, in parts of Waterford or west Cork. County Mayo has no problems with planning, of course. It is now proposed to transfer great autonomy to this body when it is already overworked, overloaded, understaffed, underpaid and so on.

With all due respect, most of the members of An Bord Pleanála know nothing about coastal zone management, the fishing industry and know less about what is appropriate for areas. They could take out their book and state what should happen. However, very few of them will go down, tog off, put on their rubber boots and oil skins and spend two or three days out hauling mussel lines on a trawler or hauling a few lobster pots or whatever.

I do not know from where this thinking comes. It is difficult for me to express such serious reservations on a Bill produced by my own Government. I am concerned that An Bord Pleanála cannot cope with its current workload, never mind deal with these issues.

A typical example, which I reiterate, is what happened in Cork port where a huge container development was planned for the south. All our strategic plans have made clear this is needed. It could be in Waterford or Cork — it does not matter. It is needed because in the shipment of containers, having regard to our geographic position in the western point of Europe, we are probably availing of 0.01% of the opportunities that are available in the line of jobs, shipping, etc. They are passing us by and going to Rotterdam and several English ports.

If I am correct, the first application for a port company, made under the Planning and Development Act 2000, was shot down. It was the first acid test for An Bord Pleanála but instead of stating that the applicant was too ambitious, that the scale and size of the application should be reduced and that there was a need to go back to the drawing board, Cork County Council was not given any say. Legislation enacted a few years ago transferred this power, which should be with the Department of Transport, to An Bord Pleanála. Guidelines were sought from the board but in its first acid test it indicated it has no interest in marine matters. It shot down the proposal in Cork.

Cork City Council, Cork County Council, Cork Chamber of Commerce, Cork Port Company were all in favour of the proposal. They conducted considerable research and spent a deal of time in seeing how they could develop Cork port into what it should be, and I welcome that. As the Minister of State will be aware, I do not welcome the possible shotgun marriage with Bantry Harbour, but I welcome the development in Cork which is good for the area. However, in the first serious test of the capacity of An Bord Pleanála to deal with such matters, it has shot down this proposal by Cork. What angers me more about An Bord Pleanála's interference in this is that it has put this project back five years with the result that the financial statue of the country and the capacity to develop and expand has diminished.

In the past year or two the economy has contracted. Next year and the following year could be worse. Hopefully, it will not be too bad. Yet, An Bord Pleanála rejected a proposal through which we could now be creating jobs in expanding this port and bringing more commerce and industry into Cork for the southern region. Why was it not possible for the board to come back, as a local authority would, stating that it would give the planning applicant a three months' extension or it should go back to the drawing board and resubmit its proposal? Instead, it declared the matter was at an end. There may be other planning reasons, which I have not fully studied, but this episode crystalises my worry about An Bord Pleanála interfering with rural Ireland and with this Department. The idea of the Minister and the Department handing over such powers to An Bord Pleanála makes me sweat with worry.