Sir, - In the light of what we have been hearing in the past few days from the Flood Tribunal, does the Minister for the Environment propose to persist with his totally undemocratic proposal in the new Planning Bill to make ordinary citizens pay to express their views to planning authorities, about planning applications which concern them?
Apart from anything else, this deprives local authorities of valuable information based on local knowledge.
This proposal was widely perceived by the general public as being a sop to large developers. Do they really deserve such a sop? We have no guarantee at all, human nature being what it is, that corrupt practices will never occur again.
Ordinary people should be able to express their views freely. The Minister should drop this proposal which balances the system still further in favour of the developer. - Yours, etc.,
S.M. Dunphy, Sutton, Dublin 13.