Eugene Murphy (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As I said to the Cathaoirleach privately, I am not going to make a major contribution on this subject today but I do intend to involve myself in the debate in the coming weeks. There will be lots of time for discussion.

I welcome the Minister of State and compliment him and his staff, as well as the staff of the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, and all the other staff who have put together a massive document. For those in the Public Gallery, I point out this Bill has 700 pages on planning and development. People might be forgiven sometimes, when listening to media reports, for thinking this legislation is hot off the presses, but the process has been going on for three years and much work has gone into the preparation of this Bill. I ask people to be careful of those who might say this Bill is hot off the presses because it is not.

A great deal of debating remains to be done on this legislation. There are many issues in the context of planning, as we all know. Even after we decide what we want to do with this Bill, and I hope it will go through because, in general, I think there is much that is good in it, planning will always be complex. There will also be difficulties and people objecting. Looking back to the housing crisis, I was on a local authority when the crash came. So many people came to me angry and pleading to have housing estates that had been built knocked to the ground. Now, we do not have the houses in place that we need. Thankfully, these estates were not knocked, in most cases, but let us imagine the crisis we would have now if they had been knocked to the ground.

The Minister of State will know Roscommon very well. Many housing estates there were unoccupied. Nobody was in them. Now, however, every single housing estate is full of people. I think we should bear this in mind. Hence the point I am making is that planning is always going to be a very complex issue. Many improvements, though, can emerge from what is being proposed here. There is a definite need to re-establish belief in the planning process. Many people in rural areas have lost all confidence in our planning system and they must be included in all this as well.

Senator Kyne mentioned objections from outside an area with regard to certain issues in planning. That will be dealt with in the Bill.