I welcome the opportunity to speak on this. I want to be very clear that I am all for speeding up any infrastructure in the line of what Government needs to do, be that roads, rail or housing. There are a few issues. I am trying to get my head around parts of this Bill. Is this Bill solely for Government and semi-State bodies? I am asking whether some wind developer somewhere that is tormenting some community will be able to avail of that in some part of the country or is it just for Government projects, be they roads or hospitals? It would be great to get clarification on that from the Minister and his officials if that could be explained. I just cannot get my head around that. I have no problem if, in a Bill, the State needs to be able to build hospitals or build roads or whatever it needs to build quicker. However, there is one part I worry about that has been mentioned, and which I have spoken to the Minister before about, and that is the Bill seems to push the critical infrastructure up to the top of the pile to get looked at. That is my understanding of it and that is fine, but I see ordinary people out there. We need quarries, whether people like it or not, to be able to build infrastructure. Let nobody cod themselves about that. There are people waiting who have applications in with An Bord Pleanála and all they get is a letter saying it is another few months gone, and another few months. The way they treat ordinary, private persons that way is disgraceful. With the best will in the world, we get that when an application for planning is put in, it is good to get it to the top of the pile. If we continue with the habitats directive in its present form, God help any Minister because there is a rigmarole they will have to go through. I have been dealing with the habitats directive for the last 20 years or more. What has happened with the habitats directive is that it started off as a directive. It then started going into the European Court of Justice, ECJ, and it started to put us in straitjacket after straitjacket. With the best will in the world to any Department, we get frustrated when things are not delivered. If we go back a few years ago and down to Lough Talt, when Jerry Grant was in Irish Water at the time, we had to go to Europe for an Article 6(3) or Article 6(4) imperative reasons of overriding public interest, IROPI, exception. No matter how you go about it, it is going to take three or four years, and it will continue unless we get some legislation put in place. I have mentioned this before to Ministers. I remember when Eamon Ryan was here, at the time we needed the jet engines to basically keep the power on or to have backup. I remember it was the Bord na Móna Bill, I think, that came in here one night. It was a Bill that basically went over all the habitats directive, and you could drive on. I think it was for three years and it could be renewed again, or whatever. Environmental impact assessments, EIAs, appropriate assessments, AAs, and all this craic we have to go on with would not have had to be done. He was able to get that legislation through because, obviously, there was an amber light on our electricity situation at the time. The legislation was put through here one night. For a Government seeking to build housing projects, and for the likes of Irish Water if it needs sewers and water, if we do not have sewers, water and roads, we are not going to build anything. That is what will happen if we do not go down that road. It will probably mean a clash with Europe, because even in Germany a snail was holding up things. I remember what happened at Lough Talt that time. There is the madness that is going on in some of this. A certain type of snail was supposed to have been in Lough Talt. I do not know how many years it had been gone for, but it was still necessary to do all the rigmarole. The project was being blocked. This was even though the pipe was coming out and Sligo County Council at the time was putting out the water daily. Irish Water was turning that pipe not near the lake, but 800 m away. It was going using the water, but it had to get an extraction licence. It was being blocked from getting that extraction licence. I spoke to Jerry Grant one evening across the road in Buswells. We went through it. That type of situation is costing money and slowing jobs by three and four years. It is ferocious. It is one thing I would ask all the Ministers to do something about. It is the bane of our lives now. It impacts when we try to extend an airport or a port. Galway Port was impacted. It impacts when there is an attempt to do a road. No matter what infrastructure is being done, it impacts, even in the case of youngsters. The designated area within 15 km of a place is now basically being called a screening-out area. I saw a place in Clonberne where there was a young couple building a house. There was no designation near them. It was sent out that they needed an EIA, a screening out and all this. We were asking why. The drain near the back of that house was going into the Sinking river, up through Sliabh and heading to Dunmore to another river. It was going up to the River Clare and into the River Corrib, some 40 miles away. That is what frustrates me. I get so frustrated over watching things like that. It cost that young couple a couple of grand more to do all that, at least. That was at the time, but it would be way more now. I will explain the problem. When we were in the bogs, we were on our ground. We were able to stand our battle. Even though people accused us of all types of things, we were able to say that was our ground. A government has to adhere to whatever legislation is in front of it, rightly or wrongly. In my opinion, unless it does that, it is pointless. We can put something to the top of the heap, but to get to the top of the heap, in the midst of EIAs, screenings out, appropriate assessments and all of that, is where I fear there is a major problem. As I said, on principle, I would like clarification on that aspect for private operators. That is the one part I would like the Minister to clarify, if his officials get the chance. I am not putting him on the spot tonight. I would like to know that. For the likes of Irish Water, the ESB and all the semi-States and Government bodies, I think we need to be able to deliver stuff faster. In a lot of cases, the money is there, but we cannot build it. That is sickening altogether. One time ago, we did not have the money, but we would have been able to build it. Now, we have gone vice versa. I ask the Minister if he could do that. I thank him very much.

Sentiment score: 0.04