Gormley stands against FF’s planning ‘nonsense’

FIANNA Fáil TD Seán Fleming obviously knows something we don’t.

He is annoyed with his Government colleague John Gormley who has rejected a number of ill-conceived county development plans, most recently in Co Mayo.

Mr Fleming assumes a dilution of Minister Gormley’s powers is on the way: “I don’t hope — I expect that this change will be made to the legislation by the Oireachtas in the new year.”

Fair play to Mr Gormley for standing up to the nonsense that local authorities have tried to foist on the people for years, led most often by Fianna Fáil councillors.

And so the Soldiers of Destiny are now feeling aggrieved that their own legislation (both the planning and development act and the national spatial strategy) have been used to temper one of the key areas they have exploited for generations — planning and rezoning. They now demand that Mr Gormley’s wings be clipped. The minister has shown that his party is about more than just bicycles and organic vegetables. This critical debate is all about moral fibre and, in this instance, it’s just what the country badly needs, and what has been absent from Fianna Fáil for a very long time. Well done, Mr Gormley. When someone protests too much, you know you must be on to something.

Declan Kenny

Mill Lane

Leixlip

Co Kildare