Michelle Mulherin (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is time to take grave stock of our planning system as we see international headlines on the length of time it has taken for Apple to secure planning permission in Athenry. We are talking about an €850 million investment for a data centre that will be fully-fuelled by renewable energy. It was announced by Apple in February 2015 that a data centre would be provided in both Denmark and in Ireland. The sod has been turned on the Danish project and construction is under way. In this country, we are still in the quagmire of the planning process. A balance always needs to be struck. There is a balance in politics and a balance of justice in law. Much emphasis is on individual rights. However, this case is not the only one where we are bringing in the sort of jobs of the future which we aim for from an international company and for which we are repositioning ourselves. For the most part, the people of the area want the project to happen. In this situation, we see that individual rights are actually crippling the progress of a major project. It has to be acknowledged that in our democracy we have to provide a system whereby people can object and individual rights are protected. However, we have to get the balance right.

Eighteen months after the project was first announced, An Bord Pleanála heard objections and gave them permission. We now have to wait until March or April for the matter to dealt with before the courts. It could be thrown back again to the planning process. I believe we need more of a balance. The manner in which these applications are dealt with, the lack of speed and the lack of progress in our planning system, as is highlighted when one compares our system with Denmark's, is not only a travesty for the people of Athenry, but a travesty for our country, because Bloomberg is saying today that this is what one gets when one deals with Ireland. We are already facing the challenges of Brexit. We do not yet know what the implications of the foreign investment policy of the new presidency of Mr. Donald Trump will mean for us. We can be hopeful, but not everything is clear. Something has to be done about our planning process or we will remain crippled and denied of vital development projects that the west, in particular, is crying out for and starved of.