DANNY HEALY-RAE CALLS FOR A CHARGE ON PLANNING OBJECTORS
THE imposition of a charge on “serial objectors” to grants of planning permission was called for by Deputy Danny Healy-Rae.
“Many of those who have sought and been granted planning permission by their local authority to build their own homes have subsequently been affected by appeals to An Bord Pleanála by serial objectors,” he said. “Likewise, farmers who want to build roads to bring timber from their forestry lands are given permission by their local authority and the forestry service but, again, the decisions are appealed by the serial objectors.”
He asked if the Government would do something about them by placing some charge on them which they would have to pay when objecting. “It is fine if someone is affected by a planning decision, but people from far away who are not connected at all are lodging appeals,” he added.
In response, the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government Eoghan Murphy said the Minister of State Deputy Damien English is bringing through the Houses a Planning Bill which includes an amendment to deal with the issue raised by the Deputy. This concerns access to industrial forestry to allow farmers and others to facilitate the movement of timber goods from their lands.
“On the issue of people objecting to the granting of planning permission, we have a very robust planning system which has done a great deal of good to protect us from things which should not happen,” he said. “However, bearing in mind an increase in the number of vexatious objections and observations, reforms will be made to the system, the details of which will be published in the Autumn.” THE failure by the Government to increase capitation grants for either primary or secondary schools was raised in the Dáil by Deputies John Brassil and Michael Healy-Rae.
Deputy Brassil asked the Taoiseach when he would honour the commitment made in the Programme for Government more than two and a half years ago.
“On page 90 a commitment is given to set out capitation rates to schools on a rolling threeyear basis, allowing for forward planning,” he said.
Deputy Healy-Rea said this is causing extreme hardship in schools which are having to make up the shortfall by fundraising. “It is very difficult for principals, teachers, parents associations and parents to try to make up the shortfall of funding to run the schools,” he said. “Of course, the capitation grant should be increased at this time, given it is one of the most essential things that keep our schools running smoothly.”
In response, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said the Government was not able to provide for an increase in capitation in the budget for this year as the priority was additional staff, reducing the pupil-teacher ratio and all the things I mentioned, but it is certainly something that is under consideration for Budget 2019.
“As is always the case, however, it is not good enough for Opposition parties just to demand more spending on everything everywhere,” he said. “We need to prioritise. If the priority for next year is going to be capitation, obviously, that makes it hard to do other things.” THE amount of plastic that is appearing on Little Skellig, one of the world heritage sites designated by UNESCO was raised in the Upper House by Fianna Fáil Senator Mark Daly. Some 70,000 gannets are nesting there, but most of their nesting material is plastic, he said.
“The plastic has been mounting up in recent years given that 18 billion tonnes of plastic is dumped into the sea every year,” he said. “I ask the Leader to organise a debate on that issue. Not only is it appearing on our coastline, but it is now appearing in the food chain, as highlighted in a study by NUI Galway in regard to its analysis of the fish being extracted from the sea”. A SO-CALLED “reconfiguration” of the ambulance service in Cork/Kerry was simply a reduction, Deputy Danny Healy-Rae told the Dáil.
In many instances now, it can be an hour or more before an ambulance arrives in parts of Kerry because the service is stretched to the limit, he said.
“A Tralee-based ambulance that comes out of Cork University Hospital has to press a button to report availability for work and can end up in Kinsale or Kanturk rather than back in Tralee,” he said. “When that happens, Kerry is left without an ambulance.”
Deputy Healy-Rae said he wished to thank the ambulance workers for the great work they are doing.
“I also thank the members of the fire service in Kerry in places like Sneem, Kenmare, Killarney, Tralee and Listowel,” he said. “They do great work protecting people when fires break out. I saw them at work on the night a local pub was burned down, and they did everything they could to save as much property as possible. They do everything really... while they might not really put their lives in danger, they have a tough time.”