John Ellis (Fianna Fail)

All Members welcome this Bill because the planning system probably needed to be tidied up to an extent. One or two items may give rise to conflict. Amendment No. 3, which inserts section 4, includes the words "consisting of land reclamation or reclamation of estuarine marsh land and of callows, referred to in section 2 of that Act' after 'the works are commenced'". However, it may be necessary for some farmers to undertake land reclamation to fulfil the regulations regarding area payments by the European Union. In some cases, farmers have been queried with regard to scrub. I refer to clearing scrub on land or rushes on wetlands, not about removing hedges or anything similar. There have been queries in this regard and in some cases, on foot of the satellite photography that is available to the European Union, queries have been made to ascertain the legitimacy of such lands being classified as grazing ground. Were someone to be queried in this manner and were they obliged to remove such scrub, would it be necessary go through the full planning process to have it removed or can this be achieved in the traditional manner by cutting it away?

Another point about which all Members are worried concerns the question of forestry roads. There is no problem with creating forestry roads but I am worried about the county and regional roads onto which such forestry roads will lead and which will be seriously impacted when the timber is being extracted. Will this Bill facilitate the imposition of limits regarding the tonnage that may be put on some of these roads? All Members will have seen minor county roads that were in reasonable repair being turned into pulp by people who have no consideration for the local community or anyone else. It is simply a case of going in and getting out as quickly as possible and to hell with the damage because the local authority or someone else will pick up the tab. Will such a scenario be covered by the amendments introduced by the Minister of State?