Yesterday, I rose with some reluctance to intervene in this debate on the proposal put forward by the Fine Gael Party that planning appeals should be determined by an independent authority other than the Minister. I did so as one who deals extensively with people who find themselves in some difficulty with their local planning authority. I do not know whether this is peculiar to Galway but certainly we have had growing-pains in the introduction of planning in the County Galway area. People who have run into difficulties have not always been able to proceed with their plans. Naturally, they turn to their local representative for his support in trying to get the necessary permission. They would ask him to see what objections there are and whether the objections can be overcome. They would ask him to see whether there is any possible way in which the development could be allowed and thus meeting the objections that are put forward in certain cases.
I am convinced that Fine Gael's intention in putting down this Bill has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with trying to provide a better or a more efficient or even a fairer system of dealing with appeals. I am now firmly of the opinion that it is their sole intention, in introducing this Bill, to use it as a platform from which they can launch all the usual abuse, falsehood, and every type of rumour they can possibly think up and throw at the Government. They do this quite often. They were doing it long before I became a Member of this House. They continue to do it in the hope that, if they throw enough mud, some of it will stick and that somewhere, some place down the country, somebody will read only their side of the story and accept that as the truth.
As a firm believer in Fianna Fáil and in all that this Government are doing, I feel an obligation to stand up here and, in whatever way I can, to try to expose what I see Fine Gael doing. It is a very poor reflection on Irish politics that, in this day and age, this method is still employed by the major Opposition Party. They are doing a great disservice to Irish politics. One cannot understand how it is that they have not yet realised that only they themselves are suffering from the methods they are adopting and that none of it is rubbing off on the Government. After 36 years, during six of which they had an opportunity themselves and for 30 of which this Party have been returned by the people as a Government, surely it should be sufficient proof to Fine Gael that the Irish people do not like dishonesty, do not like falsehood and will not stand for rumour-mongering: it has not been our nature. The result of it has been seen in the manner in which Fine Gael have continually been rejected at the polls.
I should like to see a good Fine Gael Party. I should like to see a good Opposition. It distresses me to think that this is what we have as an Opposition. This is doing no service to the Irish people, to the Irish nation, and it is doing no service to those of us who come here to devote our lives to politics. I think the Irish people can be saved from ever having Fine Gael in government but that concerns the will of the people and we are prepared to accept it. We know what the will of the people has been up to this. We see how Fine Gael are carrying on. I cannot foresee any great change in the immediate future.
I will go even so far as to say that if Fine Gael had seriously thought there was any possible chance that this Bill would pass, they would never have brought it into this House. They would never have introduced it in such circumstances because they know, from their dealings with people, that the system that operates at the moment is the only system that can operate fairly. The majority of them, the backbenchers certainly, would be the last people to want to hand over the deciding of planning appeals to a judicial body—one suggestion was to have a judge decide planning appeals. In the first place, they are not qualified for that kind of work at all. In the second place, we know that whatever delays there are at the moment— despite the expeditious manner in which the Department are trying to deal with the large number of appeals; and I know this and I know that the Minister and the Parliamentary Secretary have often spent long hours into the morning trying to clear planning appeals — in the light of the hours judges work, we know how long it would take for planning appeals to be decided. They are coming through now in from three to six or seven months: some may take longer than that. However, with a judge deciding appeals on the basis of a few hours work a day, people would have to wait years to discover whether or not they might add a room to their home or build a factory which would provide employment, or build a hotel which would help to develop the economy of an area.
This whole question is tied up too much with the development of the economic life of our people and the matter must be left in the hands of those who are elected by the people to be dealt with by them. If there are any complaints to be made about the manner in which planning appeals are being decided, then the Dáil is here and the challenge can be laid down in the Dáil. We have the Parliamentary Question. If we go back through the list of Parliamentary Questions put down in the past two years, we shall find that there were very few queries about decisions given in planning appeals. If great concern is felt by Fine Gael, where is the proof of it? Where is the proof of misuse of power by the Minister in deciding appeals? How many times have they challenged this decision in Parliamentary Questions? How many times have they used their democratic rights here as representatives in this House? I would safely say that I put more questions down regarding planning appeals than the majority of the Members of the Opposition.
There is no proof of any need for this measure at all and I firmly believe it is put down purely as a gimmick, purely to launch untruths and falsehoods and every type of mud they can sling, in the hope that some of it will stick. That is their dying wish. Where are the facts and where is the proof? Lay them on the Table of the House. Use the instruments of this House. It is an abuse of their privilege to put down Bills like this to use for this type of purpose.
The idea of having a judge as a member of an appeal board may be very suitable in one way to Fine Gael. It would of course be another way of helping to make fatter the wallets and the bank accounts of their members in the legal profession. They twist into everything. They opposed the Occupational Injuries Bill for the same reason. They want everything to be decided in this country by the legal profession and we only have to look at their own Front Bench to see that. They come in here in the evening when a lot of the work of this House is done, having ensured that their own private profession comes first and the country comes second. You will never get some of the senior counsel members in the Fine Gael benches making a speech here at 10 o'clock or 11 o'clock in the morning.
