Are there any other matters members wish to raise?
Business of Joint Committee.
At our previous meeting I attempted to make a proposal in respect of the offer from the Oireachtas Library's research department to carry out some research on behalf of the committee. I proposed that we did some work on the subject of planning versus job creation. I do not wish to appear to be negative with regard to local authorities. However, all such authorities have officers who are responsible for economic planning and development and forward planning. What are these individuals doing to assist in creating employment in local authority areas?
I can provide three or four examples relating to my local authority which has good job creation programmes where small indigenous employers will create solid jobs which were turned down by the local authority principally because the sites were not on zoned land. If all industry is to be developed on zoned lands, rural Ireland will find it difficult to make progress. Excellent young people are leaving second and third level education who want to do something for their own areas in their own areas. For instance, many sons and daughters of farmers have access to unused sheds. If they set up a business in them, the local authority will issue unauthorised development notices to halt their development. Local authorities should pull out the stops to support small projects in rural Ireland that will create jobs. It is not fair that all light industry should be developed on zoned land.
For example, a bookmaker applied for planning permission to develop a disused grocery shop, which had a filling station. The application was turned down because the land was not suitably zoned. The shop was located beside a restaurant, a newly built hotel and an enterprise park. That project would immediately have created five jobs in rural Ireland, whether one likes the bookmaking business. The local authority in that instance should have made a material contravention to its development plan to change the zoning of the land, thus permitting the development to take place. Other examples involve disused sandpits where people want to develop service stations or huts for workmen or to produce electricity from factory waste to help the environment. Their proposed developments were turned down but they would have been very beneficial. Local authorities will have to get into their heads that planning must be related to job creation projects in rural Ireland.
How does that tie in with the library's research document?
Local authorities comply with rural planning guidelines and county development plans and they do nothing outside of that. However, the committee should try to change their focus from strictly planning issues to job creation. I do not know how we should go about it. Perhaps we should conduct research in one or more local authority areas to see how they are dealing with this issue. There is significant scope for local authorities to assist us in creating jobs in rural Ireland.
I support Deputy Fitzpatrick as I can see where he is coming from. I come from a rural constituency, Cork South-West, and we find it difficult to attract major industries to our area because we are a little off the beaten track. However, locals are interested in setting up small businesses employing two or three people. They cannot afford to buy a purpose-built unit in an industrial park and, as Deputy Fitzpatrick said, a number of them own disused sheds that were used as hay barns and so on, which would be suitable for their business. While I agree in general that industry should be directed to industrial estates, what we are speaking about here is small business. Given the times we are in, I would like the council and planning authorities to take the lead and assist people to set up businesses, obviously at a lower cost than would be required were they to set up in an industrial estate. This committee should send out that message to local authorities by whatever mechanism is available, be it through officials in the Department and so on. We must be seen to be doing something to assist the start up of small indigenous industries thus providing employment for people in rural areas, many of whom have no other chance of getting employment. Often, they must diversify to farming or fishing and so on to keep themselves employed in their own area, thus keeping communities alive.
We can at this time get value for money in the building sector. People want to build homes and live in rural areas but many obstacles are being put in their way in terms of planning and so on. We must look to the future. While some 12 months ago it might have cost €250,000 to build a house, one can now build one for approximately €100,000 less. This type of construction could provide three or four jobs over a 12-month period. We must address all these issues and get across the message to local authorities, in whom the authority is vested to make these decisions, that they should be more proactive in helping people at this time.
I support what previous speakers said on this issue. County development plans were introduced at a time when we had a rush of development across the country. It is good that people continue to seek planning permission to build houses. Each house constructed will create up to ten jobs over a 12-month period.
On small business, there is no doubt but that people are encountering difficulties as a result of development plans and zoned land. I agree that we should encourage local authorities to be proactive rather than reactive in such situations. Also, An Bord Pleanála should be brought on board. I am aware of a number of developments in County Sligo, in particular a large development costing approximately €30 million, which although approved by Sligo County Council was later refused by An Bord Pleanála owing to the objections of one person who does not live within 20 miles of the development. This is happening at a time when we are crying out for jobs.
I support Deputy Fitzpatrick's proposal and echo what has been said by the other two Deputies. Foresight is 20:20 vision. If we are to bring about change we must be careful such change is not regressive but progressive. Deputy Fitzpatrick has put forward a wonderful idea.
Deputy Scanlon and I are aware of a large commercial park in Sligo which opened only two years ago. Only five of the 25 units located therein remain occupied. The development is a huge eyesore now. People are no longer shopping there and the car parks remain empty as almost all the tenants have left. We are all familiar with industrial or commercial parks which are big and shiny. There is one in every town. I would like to see us go back a little. Maybe now is the time to do it in that we have come into a downturn in the economy and there is a recession. The idea of having a big yard on a farm with a shed or a loft would lend itself and blend in very easily to some kind of indigenous industry. It might be an idea to write to county managers and ask them. It might be even better to talk to the Minister about it and get him to take it up with the various county managers. I would certainly like to see it happen.
The Senator should take it up with the Minister because a new planning Bill will be published in the very near future. It will come to this committee for Committee Stage. However, before it gets here we might be able to pass these comments on to the Minister. We will contact the library and research service on that topic. We might need to discuss and refine it and maybe give them a bit more precise information. We will have the first discussion with them to see what kind of work they could produce on this topic. We will commence that process as we have nothing else for them.
Next week we will meet officials from the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government to discuss the granting of contracts. We spoke about this matter before. Many companies feel they are not getting through the pre-qualification process for tendering and are not being allowed to tender for jobs in their own areas. I have asked the assistant secretary to come in and talk to us about how this issue applies to local authorities. The same issue applies to the Department of Education and Science, the HSE and other Government bodies. However, we want to discuss how it affects local authorities. We have all heard of cases of builders who have completed phase one of a housing scheme and have been advised they are not of a sufficient scale to allow them to tender for phase two. Those are the types of issues. It is an issue in certain parts of the country although perhaps not all parts. We want to get some information on it. There seems to be a tendency to give too many jobs to the very big national contractors and not enough at local level. It is important from an employment point of view.
The joint committee adjourned at 4.45 p.m. until 3.30 p.m. on Tuesday, 19 May 2009.