Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I support the positive work charities do, following what Senator Ó Labhrás Murchú stated. I am relying on the Society of St. Vincent de Paul to help a man with a bill of €1,440 in order that he can have his electricity switched on. Without the support of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, we will be lost because there is no heart in the ESB to deal with such cases. Such positive work must continue to be supported.

I welcome the important independent Supreme Court decision to allow work on an ecological development centre to proceed in County Wicklow. It is a great decision for the nation and County Wicklow. The project will mean 2,000 construction jobs and 800 jobs in the ICT and horticulture sectors. It could have been lost to Ireland because of unreasonable delays in the planning process. The planning process for the project has continued for two or three years and I do not know how the entrepreneur involved stuck with it. He obtained planning permission in County Wicklow which was the subject of an appeal by An Bord Pleanála. That is fine and I have no difficulty with the process. However, he was brought to the High Court where he won, but he was then taken to the Supreme Court.

We are all interested in sustainable jobs. We are interested in an open and transparent planning process. I believe the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government will be in the House all next week. Can the Leader provide one hour for a debate on An Bord Pleanála? To whom is it accountable? Who oversees its decisions? What justifies it appealing a case from the High Court to the Supreme Court, with the loss this country could have experienced by such a decision? Misery has been put on Irish people over the last few years because of a lack of jobs, and the lost opportunity that has been here for at least two to three years. This is part of a much broader debate. An Bord Pleanála must be reviewed.