I concur with the welcome you made to the Croke family, a Cheann Comhairle. They have been so helpful to the people of Lowertown and Cross Barry for many years on a voluntary basis, helping people with local gardening and all the works that need to be done there. They are a great addition to be here in the Dáil today. Independent Ireland supports the objective behind this Bill. We all know that our planning system has become too slow, complex and bureaucratic. Delays in planning are delaying homes and infrastructure and frustrating communities right across rural and urban Ireland. There are a number of positive measures in this legislation. The extension of existing development plans provides certainty, while local authorities prepare the new ten-year plan. The measures aimed at accelerating electricity, gas and other strategic infrastructure are welcome. Without adequate infrastructure, we simply cannot deliver the housing that people desperately need. We also recognise the potential benefits of allowing approved apartment developments to be modified more easily. If sensible changes can help deliver more homes and improve viability without unnecessary delays, that is something we should support. However, faster planning must never mean less accountability. One concern for Independent Ireland is the growing centralisation of decision-making. The Bill allows regional directors and chief executives to take greater control where deadlines are missed. We must ensure that elected councillors and local representatives are not sidelined in the process. Local democracy matters and local communities deserve to have their voices heard. We also need assurances that rural Ireland will benefit equally from these reforms. Faster infrastructure delivery cannot be confined to major urban centres. Rural roads, water services, electricity networks and community infrastructure must receive the same priority if balanced regional development is to become a reality. The Government says that these changes will reduce delays, increase housing supply and improve legal certainty. Those are worthwhile goals. However, the real test will be whether more homes are built, infrastructure projects are delivered faster, and whether the public continues to have confidence in the planning process. Independent Ireland will engage constructively with this Bill. We support cutting red tape and removing needless obstacles, but we will also need to insist on protections for local democracy, ensuring that rural communities are not left behind, and the maintenance of safeguards. Communities have concerns. There is one thing we have to be careful of. I met a group from Wexford last week. Its members want clarity. The Minister of State might be able to give it to me today or at a future date. Precisely what grant of planning permission exists for new railways overbridge at Park-Carcur just outside Wexford? I have been told that the CEO of Iarnród Éireann and the Minister for Transport claim that this bridge is covered by a planning application from a third-party developer, but it seems that that is not the case. The bridge appears to have been constructed with taxpayers’ money without planning permission. I would appreciate if the Minister of State could clarify that issue in the days ahead. In this Bill, we have to look at the current situation. We are talking about county development plans lasting longer, but my concern is that mistakes are being made. The mistake in the county development plan is that the local representatives are being squeezed. I know it from my time from 2014 to 2016 on the local authority. We had a hell of a lot to say in relation to county development plans. Now, I find that my councillors have very little say. It is from the top down. We need to change that. There was a village nucleus. We want to look after the survivors of rural Ireland. Urban areas are hugely to Independent Ireland, too. They put a village nucleus into areas where there was public transport, a local church and a local shop. You build around that area. They withdraw that in the next county development. That was a negative move to make because it was killing rural Ireland. There are communities out there losing their post offices, little creameries and churches because communities are dying. They are losing GAA clubs, which is a very serious concern, and their soccer clubs. We need to put the focus back on how we build small rural communities. That is how we do it. If there is a local school bus service or local rural transport service passing these doors, that is how you build around a community and that community grows. That is an area that the Department needs to look at and have a very serious focus on. County development plans are from the top down. That is not the way it should be. The local authorities need to have a stronger say. We have to look at issues like housing, roads and transport. Money is being spent on infrastructure. It is hugely important. Uisce Éireann has become unaccountable. One cannot talk to it. When I send correspondence to it, it is like I am talking to old Jack the dog at home, but the dog would waggle the tail at least. Uisce Éireann is unaccountable. Imagine, it is getting billions of euro from the State and does not have to account for it to anybody. I know people who are willing to invest in infrastructure to build local communities. I spent months looking for a meeting with Uisce Éireann - the local person is willing to put the money into building infrastructure that Uisce Éireann should be doing but cannot do - but cannot get one. It is not just me. Everybody else comes in here saying the same thing. There is no accountability. The Government seems to be forking out money without accountability. That needs to change. I ask the Minister of State to stand up to Uisce Éireann. A lot of TDs came in here and showed a lot of concern about Uisce Éireann, and it came across the road and met us, but it has not met us since. It has not followed up on the queries that we had. That was just fake, a bit of box-ticking to get rid of us again for another couple of years. All Uisce Éireann needs to do is ask for another billion or million euro. It does not matter. It just ticks a box and it will get it. We need to make changes in here so that there is accountability and we can go back and say that there is somebody willing to pay this out. It happened in my own community down in Durrus. The construction company of a man who is dead now built the wastewater treatment plant there. That town has been thriving fairly well since and able to build houses since. It does not seem to be happening in the rest of the country. Look at the Shannonvales, the Dunmanways, the Rosscarberys, the Ballydehobs and the Goleens. What is happening? For Shannonvale, there is now a promise that something is going to happen. In Dunmanway, a TD told the Dáil six or 12 months ago that 50 houses were going to be built. Now, I have heard that there are only going to be 15 houses. Imagine, 15 houses for the next 20 or 30 years. That is a disaster for a growing town like Dunmanway. We are not moving with the times. We are way behind. The more rural you are located in this country, the worse things get. The N71 from Rosscarbery to Owenahinch is so dangerous that it is impassable. Regarding the road in Ballydehob, I am continuously raising concerns that might save lives. If there were passing bays, it would bring people into our community in west Cork. We have every right to fight for our constituents. That is why we were put into Dáil Éireann. I spoke to young Micheál Croke, who is above in the Gallery. He talked to me about the concerns at Cross Barry regarding a footpath there. I stay out in Bray when I am here in Dublin. I saw that a lovely, safe, concrete footpath was built in one its areas, but a beautiful wooden one was also put in just to add to the area. It is lovely. Down in Cross Barry, there is an incredible amount of danger in walking the bridge there, given the number of lorries and other traffic. They need an inside timber bridge, metal bridge or something to save lives, yet nothing happens year after year and promise after promise. Lorries keep striking the wall there and people are within inches of losing their lives, but nobody is accountable and nobody cares. Obviously, something has to happen, then everybody will start running and shouting. We are talking about speeding up plans in relation to Gaeltacht areas. We have to look at the islands. I represent eight islands. I talk about Cape Clear, Sherkin Island, Long Island, Dursey Island, Bere Island, Whiddy Island and Heir Island. When was the last time a house was built on any of those islands? The Minister of State will not be able to answer because I will tell him: there has been none. They cannot even get planning there, never mind being able to afford to build. When was there a social house built? People have every right to live on their islands. It is the same as those who cannot afford a house being entitled to get social housing. Why cannot the people of those islands at least included in a social housing programme the same as every other community? The living life has been squeezed out of islands. As public representatives, we meet the islanders. They want their young people. They want their schools to survive. Their schools are closing down because people cannot get a home. They have to go back down to the mainland. There is a rush or race to send people away from rural areas. Planning permission can be very frustrating. Deputy Ward talked about, for example, a person from Donegal objecting to something in west Cork. That is outrageous and has to stop. There is only one way to do so, and that is to put legislation in to make sure that things like that do not happen. People will say to me that they have a right to object, but there is a proper way to do it and an improper way to do it. It is often pointed out to me how a local person could not get planning but somebody with a lot of money ended up with a house down the road. That is hard for me to explain because I am not on the inside when it comes to planning, but we have to ask questions about how that happened. I am not saying that it happens very often, but it does happen. It is frustrating for the people who have lived all their lives there and are refused when someone they do not know does get planning permission. That happens quite a lot. It is an area of frustration that the Government needs to look into further. There is a vacant home grant, and it is very welcome. A lot of people have availed of it and I could not fault it, but there is a bit of a concern that money sometimes does not get out to the people fast enough. That is beside the point, though. It is building up in rural areas. One planning matter that the Minister of State needs to look into is where people find a ruin. They think that this great - a ruin in a rural community falling asunder - and this is going to be built. The first thing they will be asked for is to have a conservation repairs document prepared. Then there will be a bat report, an invasive alien plant species report and a nature impact statement report. It is €20,000 before they put a block in the ground. I recall how, when I was growing up, I built a house at home. It cost me £22,000. It was a six-bed dormer bungalow. Now, people cannot even get a project off the ground for that money. The paperwork has to be finished. There are all these reports. Somebody is making a hell of a lot of money out of this. At the same, when people come into my constituency office - I presume it is the same for the Minister of State - and I look at it, it is a ruin. It is falling down. Would the Government not be delighted to encourage these guys to build and start a new life for themselves?

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