James Heffernan (Labour) | Oireachtas source

Fair enough. I just wanted to clarify that before I started.

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Ann Phelan. My matter is fairly straightforward in that I ask that a response be given to a resolution that was passed by Limerick County Council in November last. As far as I am aware, Limerick County Council has received no response at all from the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government. It is not acceptable, when councils pass motions and they are forwarded to the relevant Ministers, that no official response comes back to them. It shows a disregard for the work of elected representatives, in particular county councillors, if the Minister in charge is going to ignore them.

I will give a brief history of the particular complaint. I am calling for an independent investigation in regard to a couple of planning matters. To be clear from the outset, the applicant himself does not dispute the fact that he was refused a planning application; that is fine and is accepted. What is in question here is the manner and the method whereby that application was allowed to proceed. There is a perception that there was maladministration on the part of Limerick County Council when it was dealing with the applicant, in that he was left to go too far along a stage with the application while the planners seemed to be of a view that it was never going to be approved in the end. The argument the applicant is making is that, under the guidelines as set out by the former Minister, Mr. Dick Roche, in 2007, if something was going to affect the outcome of a planning decision, the applicant should be made aware of such a problem at the pre-planning stage. The whole argument of this applicant is that this procedure was not followed. This is not about the outcome and it is not the case that he was going to appeal to An Bord Pleanála. He agreed with the outcome. It is just his feeling that it should not have gone so far.

This matter has been brought to the attention of the Office of the Ombudsman. I am not sure if it was properly picked up that the guidelines as set out in 2007 by the former Minister do not seem to have been followed. All the members of Limerick County Council, of all parties, to my knowledge, are in agreement that an independent investigation should take place because they feel there was certainly maladministration when it came to these particular applications. I would like to hear the response from the Department to the resolution that was unanimously passed by Limerick County Council back in November.