Brian Stanley: Bill Risks Rubbing Out Local Democracy

The supposed purpose of this Bill is to speed up infrastructure and to get various different bodies to work together and I would welcome any genuine attempt to simplify planning and to speed up infrastructure which takes forever and a day in this country to get moving, for it to be delivered on time and to be delivered at in cost, at the target cost and that environmental laws and regulations are not rolled roughshod over. But this Bill has all the hallmarks of that's what it's about. It's important that infrastructure is accelerated, it's important that it's brought in on time, it's important that it's brought in on budget. But this Bill and reading the different sections of it, section 2, section 3, section 5 in relation and section 6 in relation to the Minister being able to give directions to relevant bodies and section 7 that is really the eye-opener where it displays section 15 of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Act, designated projects. And I know from the past with previous infrastructure legislation back in the noughties, you know at the time this is declared as it's only for public projects but it turns out it's for private projects. So it looks like the data centres and everything else is included and that's no way to get public infrastructure in place. Of course we need to do everything efficiently but not at the cost of everything else, of literally rubbing out local democracy, riding roughshod over good environmental laws and legislation. It does nothing in terms of improving any of that, in fact quite the opposite. And if we just turn to County Leash for a moment Minister, the Minister for Local Government notified the local authority in Leash that they want 5,000 more homes in it. That's grand. But what they didn't say was what infrastructure they're going to put in and particularly in Port Leash which is targeted for a lot of that growth. You know we need a new primary school there which your Ministers have told me and the floor of the Dáil here that we don't need, despite the fact that there's hundreds upon hundreds of children being bussed out all over the county every morning to school because there's no school places for them in Port Leash, including the children in the estate where I live. Jobs in the county, you know for a relatively small county there's 12,000 people commuting out of the county every morning to work according to a local authority. Survey. Childcare can't be got. Childcare places simply aren't available in most of the county and we need one of those centres that government have planned to deliver directly by government. We need one of them urgently in Leash. In fact we could do it all eight in Leash and we'd only have just about enough. Wastewater facilities. I outlined here back a number of months ago that a number of towns and villages need wastewater and water treatment facilities and water supply accelerated in towns if we're going to have houses in it. Towns and villages such as Ballinacale, Borough of Snowstreet, Dorough, Ballylinan, Rathdowny, Mount Melick, Grey Cullen and so on. They're all short of infrastructure. The courthouse in Port Leash hasn't been delivered. We're still one of the nine counties without a domestic abuse refuge in the year 2026 and families and particularly women and children are being sent all over the place because we simply don't have them. We don't have the facility for them in the county. So this isn't good enough. This isn't good enough Minister and I don't see this bill addressing any of that. I have real concerns about this. You know you brought in critical infrastructure legislation in the noughties and I remember arguing on local radio with Deputy Sean Fleming at the time about it. I was a local councillor at that time and I remember pointing out what was going to happen you know and what it done in terms of destroying local democracy and what it done in terms of righting roughshod over good planning rules and this, this bill as it's presented now without pre-legislative scrutiny I have huge concerns about this. But I'd like you to bring one thing to the attention of your Minister for Local Government. If you're going to demand that all these houses built in Leash, you know we need infrastructure. There's no orbital route in Port Leash. The Port Leash Northern Orbital Route which is a number one priority. That and the Mount Millig link road which will shorten the route for commuters and people and particularly for trucks that won't have to travel as far and shorten the journey for them. They're needed. You can't have houses without the infrastructure. Where's the houses going to be built in Leash? Are we going to build them in fields you know and have borings going up to them across fields or something? You know you cannot put in housing that number of houses without infrastructure. I've outlined here some of what's needed and I'm saying to you here it's grand you know to boys and girls over in the Department of Housing and Local Government over in the Customs House you know doing up these figures and sending them down to the county manager saying here get the councillors and the officials to provide this. It can't be done if we don't have the infrastructure and you know this is where we're falling down on and you know there was a funding package announced here for the National Development Plan a few months ago and Leash was ignored. Leash was ignored in it despite all the promises before the election. That's where we're at Minister.