Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael)

I dtús báire, cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit, an Teachta Ciarán Cuffe. I welcome the publication of the report. The map on the newspaper I am displaying is the legacy of the failure of the Fianna Fáil-led Government and of successive Fianna Fáil Governments to plan properly for this country. The Minister of State, Deputy Cuffe, is a Minister in the Government. I appreciate he was not involved when the majority of the failure occurred but he is with it now. The Green Party has hitched its wagon to the Fianna Fáil train.

I welcome the report. This should not be about blame. It is about a call to action. In our constituencies there are estates where people are as appalled as we are at the way in which they have been left. I refer to young couples, married people and single people who invested in the Celtic tiger dream. As Senator Hannigan rightly said, our unfinished estates are the most visible legacy we can see. We have the legacy of the bank bailout. From 7 December we will have the legacy of the pummelling of the people by the Government for bad governance, as Senator Dearey said, across a range of areas.

There is a set of core questions the people of this country and those in Cork South-Central who speak to me about their estates wish to get answered, namely, what, when and how it will be done. That is what we as politicians must try to sort out. Many estates are incomplete, substandard, vacant, unsafe and derelict. I will not name the estates in my constituency. Many of them are on the periphery of the city; some of them are in the city. The people affected are appalled at what has been left behind. We are all aware of the visual impact of unfinished estates. The Minister of State, Deputy Cuffe, is a planner. We must examine the manner in which planning was allowed to run amok. I agree with Senator Dearey that there was no joined-up thinking between the national spatial strategy and county development plans.

We should never have taken away the powers of local councillors to give planning permission. When I was a councillor I took that power seriously. I fought many developers in my area not because I was against developers or speculators but because I did not see logic in some developments, for example, the imposition of high-rise apartments in my area of Bishopstown. We are where we are today. Much of the development was driven by local authorities needing to raise development levies to fund their services. If the Green Party in government does nothing else, it should bring about real reform of local government. Let us devolve power in local authorities so that they can fund themselves and go forward. That might be considered too aspirational. Let us have a discussion at national level on the issue. We could set up a forum such as the New Ireland Forum. People are getting poor provision of service from local authorities not because councils will not do the work but because they cannot do it.

Bad government policy fuelled where we are today. The relationship between the Fianna Fáil Party and some developers was too cosy. Let us not tar all developers with the one brush. We need development such as housing of various types and commercial developments. Let us not put all developers in the same category. Developers responsible for any unfinished estate should not be given planning permission again. They should not be allowed to re-register the company or become part of a new company. We must become tough on people. We are all aware of young and middle aged people who bought into housing estates. As Senator Dearey said, the brochures were like a fashion parade. It was like "Sex and the City", but that is no longer the case.