The Taoiseach spoke earlier about the need for housing and everyone right around the Dáil here agrees on the urgent need for more houses. He spoke about 50,000 houses and it is welcome that he has that aspiration and the policy to try to back it up but I would like to go to the nuts and bolts of this. At the moment in Ireland, a person with a small quarry will be four to five years trying to get planning and will have to spend a minimum of €300,000 on reports and getting through the planning process. The Minister of State, Deputy Grealish, is beside the Taoiseach. From Galway city to the Atlantic Ocean is probably 50 miles at least and there is not one quarry in that area now because they are all being blocked. Looking at the cost, a load of stone and six-inch down in 2013 was €4 a tonne ex-pit; it is about €12 a tonne now. This is what you call costs rising constantly. Then we talk about muck away. On 1 March this year, for the small operators that take away muck from housing sites, €10 a tonne is going onto a load of muck. That is €200 a load. Some €3,000 for a semi-detached is going onto a load of muck and each house being built, and the Government talks about cutting costs. Then, the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, and the Department are going to say, "Ah well, sure there is way out" and there are Articles 27 and 28. I will give the Taoiseach the facts of Article 27. First, under Article 27, if I buy new stone off a quarry - if I bring it in for what we call a haul road, where it will be taken away again - to take that new stone away from that site, I have to employ a person and get a report done for €1,500 now, plus €250 each for the two samples. That is €2,000 more to take the stone out as per the new regulation that has gone in under Article 27. Article 28 is where - I will explain it to the Taoiseach - if you had a house down the country that needed knocking, and you basically knocked it down, put it in a crusher and crushed it up, you would have to spend the same money on that house to be able to move that stone. That is what we are doing at the moment. In relation to concrete, in 2020 concrete was about €70 to €80 per cu. m. It is gone to €130 at the moment and is going up again by €10 because of carbon taxes, they will tell you, electricity costs and obviously the defective blocks are going to be part of it. They are saying very clearly it is because of what they call the greenwashing that is going on in this country. How does the Taoiseach propose, in the line of planning for quarries, to reduce that figure and keep them in the game? Is he going to allow stone shifted from site that was bought new to be exempted?
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What I am saying to the Taoiseach is that the facts are, if I am a small quarry operator, it is going to cost me €300,000 to do the reports that those planners need. That is not sustainable for the small guy. Does the Taoiseach realise that at this minute - I will put it on record here - we are heading for four quarries in Ireland because the big guys are mopping up? I would urge the Taoiseach to get someone to research, through the Land Registry, who owns the quarries in Ireland. Four of them are buying up everything around them because they have the legal eagles, the accountants and the funds behind them, and the small guy is being pushed out of it. Those are the facts of what is going on. I understand about the habitats directive, but look at what is going on in this country in relation to that. Also, the Department of the environment has brought in recycling under Article 27 and Article 28. Does the Taoiseach realise who is setting up those plants around Ireland, because it is €12 million to set that up?
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What will the small fellow with three or four lorries do in some small town when he is trying to build? He has to bring his muck away.
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Have a look at what is going on. Open your eyes to what is happening.
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We are heading for four quarries in this country that will own recycling, and own the quarrying of this country.
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We cannot see what is happening. You know what happens then - up with the price.
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England has different rules.
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It is a different system.
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Yes, but it is a different system.
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We are burying our heads in the sand.
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