Terry Brennan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I join other speakers in calling for the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government to come into the House. The issue I would like to discuss with him is planning permissions which are about to expire. The collapse in the building industry over the past four years has been astronomical and people are applying for continuation of planning permission to develop housing schemes and individual houses. They must apply before the five-year period of the grant lapses. I am concerned that in some cases people who apply to their local authorities to extend the length of their permission period are being refused. In a number of cases, when unsuccessful applicants brought their cases to An Bord Pleanála, they were refused on appeal and, as a result, had to go through the courts to retain permission. I want to know whether the same conditions will apply where legal requirements have not changed in the intervening period. We should do all we can to revive the building industry. A debate is urgently needed on standardising what local authorities should be doing throughout the country to revitalise the building industry.