They are future voters.

I raised an issue with the Taoiseach on Leaders' Questions in September 2017 about Apple's plans to build a data centre near Athenry, County Galway. My concerns proved well grounded in light of Apple's subsequent decision not to go ahead with that development. At that time, the Taoiseach agreed that planning issues and delays in the courts undermined the case for future investment in Ireland and stated that the Government intended to act on the matter. We still have in place a planning system which is riddled with flaws and which is ultimately costing us jobs and losing us money. This is an issue for the entire country but recent experiences in Galway have certainly led us to the conclusion that the system is well and truly broken.

Prior to that we had a long saga of efforts to solve Galway city's crippling traffic problems frustrated by planning difficulties that lasted for decades. Something in the region of €14 million was spent on previous plans to build an outer bypass of the city, all of which proved to be money down the drain because it got nowhere. The current N6 ring road project will have countless more millions spent on it with no guarantee that we will get the right decision and a road built. This issue is causing massive headaches for road users in Galway and also for homeowners who cannot sell their houses and landowners who are being affected by the current plans.

The most recent fiasco relates to Galway Hospice being refused planning permission for a brand new facility on the grounds of Merlin Park Hospital. This is a much-needed facility for which there is massive public support in Galway. It was granted planning permission by Galway City Council. That was appealed to An Bord Pleanála and an inspector recommended that it be granted.

However, in one of those curious decisions, the board of the planning authority ignored the inspectors' advice and refused the permission. When will there be a major overhaul of our planning laws to eliminate costly delays? The refusal of planning permission for these projects is costing companies millions of euro and charitable organisations, such as the Galway Hospice, thousands of euro, money which was raised through fundraising by hard-working people in Galway. It is costing the Government and the taxpayer millions of euro trying to get projects through the system.

The system is broken and not working. There has to be a complete review of the entire planning system to make it easier to get planning permission. I am not calling for a free-for-all. However, there has to be a simpler system for getting planning permission, one which would not result in millions of euro being spent only for permission not to be granted at the end of the day. The old system is giving Ireland, and certainly Galway, a bad name. First, there was the city bypass which should have been built by now. Then there was the Apple centre which should be open by now. Now we have a situation with the Galway Hospice. This will have a negative effect on inward investment. It already has with Apple.

Will the Taoiseach give a commitment, as a matter of urgency, that there will be a major overhaul of the planning system?

When it comes to planning, our approach is driven by Project Ireland 2040, which was launched in Sligo over a year ago. This is a 20-year spatial plan which is linked to a ten-year €116 billion investment in our public infrastructure. The plan’s vision is to achieve, for the first time in Ireland, balanced regional development. That means the population of our cities, like Galway, Limerick, Cork, and Waterford, as well as other urban centres such as Athlone, Drogheda, Dundalk, Letterkenny working with Derry, and Sligo, will grow at a much faster rate over the next 20 years than Dublin. It is aimed to have three quarters of population growth happening outside the Dublin area. To make that possible, we need to, as the Deputy touched on, make sure the transport infrastructure can be built and is in place while social infrastructure around healthcare and education can be provided.

While the Deputy touched on several projects which have become stuck in the planning process or the legal process, we should not forget those which have been delivered. For example, the Gort-Tuam motorway, the M17-M18, the single largest transport infrastructure investment in the west in the past five years, connects Gort and Tuam by motorway, forming part of our vision for the Atlantic economic corridor linking up Galway, Limerick, Shannon and Cork. Another step was made on that road only last week when work started on the N4 upgrade to Sligo. We also have plans for BusConnects in Galway to improve bus services in the city, which is essential. The latest plans for the Galway ring road are with An Bord Pleanála. We anticipate oral hearings in the coming months.

The three projects referred to by the Deputy failed planning for different reasons. The data centre for Athenry went through planning reasonably efficiently through Galway Council and An Bord Pleanála. The hold-up was in the courts in and around a judicial review. That case is still in the courts. Apple has pulled out of the project but the Government is still pursuing the case on a point of law because we still want the data centre built in Athenry, if not for Apple then for somebody else.

It is definitely the case in my view that too many of these important projects which get through planning end up stymied in the courts. We need to change that. Part of that is around appointing more judges. It will also require a more efficient court process. Some of the change will be legislative as well. For example, we have amended the strategic infrastructure Act to include data centres. The Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, will bring forward a planning Bill in the next few months to change the law around judicial review. It will make it a little less easy for people to call for a judicial review of planning decisions, reduce the notice period and require people have proper locus standi before taking such cases. We must always balance, however, the understandable desire on our part to get projects built with the right of individuals to object, to say the impact on their communities could be too harsh, and to take into account the impact on the environment.

I appreciate some changes have been made in an effort to ease the way for certain types of projects to get planning permission. However, that is not enough. We still have good projects supported by the majority of people being endlessly bogged down in the complexities of our current planning system. It is costing us jobs and money. We all know by now how Apple announced plans for a data centre in Denmark around the same time it announced plans for one in Athenry. The Danish one is up and running while a second Apple centre in Denmark is due to commence operations in the second quarter of this year. Two months ago, Google announced plans for another large data centre in southern Denmark. Economists predict it will bring a boost of €740 million to the Danish economy during construction.

There was little chance of Ireland ever being considered for that project in light of Apple's experience here. The Taoiseach should make no mistake. All other major global companies are well aware of Apple’s debacle. Who knows what decisions relating to investments may have been revised as a result? With the uncertainty of Brexit, we cannot afford to lose out on any opportunities to boost the economy. We need an immediate and complete overhaul of our planning system before it can get better.

It was of enormous regret to me and the Government that the data centre in Athenry did not go ahead. I still hope it will go ahead sometime in the future, maybe not by Apple but by some other company.

Google pulled out.

We should not make the mistake of thinking that what happened in Athenry is the norm. It is not. Data centres have been and are being built all over Ireland for other companies such as Amazon and Facebook. It has not deterred other companies from investing in Ireland or building data centres here. It is understood that the Apple centre in Athenry was an exceptional situation and not a failure of the planning process. In fairness to the council and to An Bord Pleanála, it was in the courts that it got stuck.

I accept we need to make reforms to the planning system in several areas. There needs to be greater use of the strategic infrastructure Act to fast-track planning. Reforms to the Planning and Development Act will come before the House in the next few months. I know Deputy Grealish will want to make an input into that. It will perhaps make it less easy for people to take judicial reviews and also ensure our court processes work much better. It is not just about the employment of additional judges but also about cases being managed much better.