Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

We populated countries as far away as Australia, Canada and the United States of America. One will find Irish people and Irish pubs all over the world. These people are not coming to this country because they want to come. They are coming because they have nowhere else to go. It poses huge problems for us but I am happy to congratulate the Irish Congress of Trade Unions for offering its training centres throughout the country to provide training, socialisation and language programmes for the refugees coming to this country. We should acknowledge that offer.

One of the most serious issues for those coming here will be the fact that they left their country with nothing. They left without paperwork and so forth, so there will have to be fairly stringent recognition of prior learning. If somebody comes into the country and presents as a doctor or engineer, how do we verify that? I recall many years ago a butcher operating as an orthopaedic surgeon for a number of years in one of our main hospitals. That is an issue that must be borne in mind.

Finally, on the issue of planning, we have a construction industry that is on its knees, although it is beginning to recover now. I will acknowledge the work of this Government in reviving the economy, but the planning system needs examination. I am calling for a debate on planning, particularly with regard to the notion of planning for local need only. There are people with money at the moment who are prepared to build houses in rural parts of Ireland but they are being blocked purely on the basis of the local need condition. One must question where we are going with planning in that regard. I ask for a debate on the issue in order to try to lay down some ground rules regarding what constitutes local need, because it appears that it differs from one place to another. I ask the Leader to consider such a debate.