I call Senator Derek Warfield.

Did the Leas-Chathaoirleach say "Derek"?

I am sorry; I meant "Fintan".

The Leas-Chathaoirleach is a secret Wolfe Tones fan.

The Senator understands the slip.

I did not think the Leas-Chathaoirleach was a Wolfe Tones fan.

I have indeed been known to tune in.

I always enjoyed my time in the Gleneagle. I will speak briefly.

I am very disappointed this morning to hear that the plan for a civic plaza at College Green has been turned down by An Bord Pleanála. This issue is about the €10 million proposal to pedestrianise the space in front of Trinity College Dublin, to the side of Bank of Ireland and up Dame Street and to turn the area into a vibrant, car-free, child-friendly central plaza for Dublin city. The space was identified as potentially the most important civic space in Dublin by Dublin City Council's public realms strategy in 2012. It is hugely important in terms of building Dublin as a liveable city. I have not yet read the report in full, only the reasons and considerations. The report was released this morning. It throws it back to Dublin City Council to go back to the drawing board again to sort out what An Bord Pleanála considered to be significant shortcomings associated with the traffic modelling and the effects of bus rerouting. The people of Dublin deserve a city that flows, in that they can get where they want to go, but it should be a liveable, child-friendly, pedestrian city. This is a project I passionately support, but we need to get it right.

I wanted to raise one issue, but I will very briefly support my colleague, Senator Gallagher, in calling for the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport to come to the House to discuss Bus Éireann. It provides an excellent service in the main but there are some difficulties.

Last August, An Post announced the names of 156 post offices which were to be closed in the Twenty-Six Counties over a period of months. It also announced an appeal mechanism and the criteria such post offices had to meet to appeal that decision. In spite of a detailed submission by Killeshandra Community Council, which clearly outlined the huge range of business activities in the town and the wide diversity in commerce and enterprise, its appeal was turned down. The council was informed of that in recent days. Like any rural community, there is a large cohort of older people. Unfortunately, in many instances, they do not have their own transport or access to technology. At a recent public meeting held in the town, which was attended by my colleagues, Councillors Sean Smith and John Paul Feeley, there was a determination in that community that its post office should remain open. It was doing excellent business and the local community was, and is, using it to a large extent. The community felt that its post office met the criteria for an appeal but unfortunately, as I said, it was turned down in recent days. In a recent Dáil debate my colleague, Deputy Brendan Smith, outlined clearly to the Minister that in assessing the need for a post office facility, An Post should factor in the population of the town and its hinterland. I believe Killeshandra meets and met all of the necessary criteria. Unfortunately it was unsuccessful.

I appeal to the Leader to facilitate the new Minister to come to the House in order for us to outline to him our views, and to get his views, in respect of the appeals process because it is obviously not adhering to its own criteria. I would appreciate it if we could look to the future of our post offices and not the past, as is normally the response from Government representatives in both Houses. Unfortunately, the Leader meets those criteria. I would like to look to the future and, if there are criteria set aside for appeals and communities meet them, those communities should be successful, not unsuccessful. We want the Minister in here to discuss that process in detail.

Like other colleagues, I am very disappointed that the plaza on College Green is not going ahead. In many other European cities, one sees that the centre of the city has a plaza. I often reflect on decisions made by An Bord Pleanála. I believe it needs to be radically reshaped. Political accountability is good, not bad. There is no political accountability for An Bord Pleanála. I am open to correction but I do not believe An Bord Pleanála has ever come into the Houses of the Oireachtas to answer questions on some of the decisions it makes. Perhaps it is precluded from doing so. If that is the case perhaps we need to change the legislation in that area.

I wish to speak about another issue I know that will be close to an Leas-Chathaoirleach's heart, because he comes from a county that benefits greatly from tourism, which creates thousands of jobs throughout the west coast. We have done so well from initiatives like the Wild Atlantic Way, Ireland's Ancient East and so on. The Government's commitment to investing in greenways is the new way to go in terms of developing a year-round weather-resistant tourism product. There are now many people who do not come for the weather.

They come because they want to get involved in activities and be on the move. It is what we call healthy tourism.

I request the Leader to invite the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport to come before the House in order that he might provide an update on the greenways programme. Additional resources for the programme were announced in the budget, which is very welcome. We could be doing more to promote the greenways. In County Clare, we have a walk along the Cliffs of Moher that goes from Hag's Head as far as Doolin. It is between 8 km and 10 km in length and thousands of people do it every year. The walk requires significant investment. Some 1.5 million people frequent the Cliffs of Moher visitor experience each year. A proportion of the resources generated by the facility needs to be redirected into upgrading the cliff walk and enhancing the partnership that already exists between the local community and farmers and the State agencies which promote the walk. The farmers need to see a greater dividend. The walkway needs to be upgraded and significant money needs to be spent on it. The Minister needs to come before the House and provide an overall presentation on greenways and walkways. In the course of that, he might be kind enough to outline his plans for the future of the Cliffs of Moher walk in County Clare.

I also want to mention College Green. It is certainly disappointing that a pedestrian plaza will not be developed at that location. I would have liked the plans to have gone much further, including for the Bank of Ireland building there, which has a long history, to be taken into State ownership.. I have always believed part of the dividend of the bank bailout should have been Bank of Ireland handing over the building at College Green. I have heard the Leader state on many occasions that he agrees this should be done.

There is a trend with An Bord Pleanála's decisions. Today, this major infrastructural proposal has fallen. A development in Poolbeg West, which would provide 3,500 units to house up to 8,500 people, has been delayed until January at least. The previous Minister with responsibility for housing and current Tánaiste, Deputy Coveney, promised that ground would be broken on the Poolbeg West site in 2017 and that residents would move in by 2019. This will not happen. An Bord Pleanála must be resourced properly, it must be independent and it should not be answerable to the House. We established it as an independent authority. Many Senators were elected by local authority members. An Bord Pleanála upholds the development plans of local authorities. This is its key role. I certainly would not like to see-----

Politicians should not interfere with cases.

I certainly would not like to see any political interference with An Bord Pleanála.

Oversight, not interference.

The terms of reference of An Bord Pleanála include that it must uphold the development plans signed off by local councillors and take into consideration Government policy. Any move to interfere with this would be to go back to the dark ages when it was normal that the largest parties in the State constantly interfered with planning decisions. I will uphold the independence of An Bord Pleanála, but I want to see it properly resourced whereby it can make decisions in a timely manner.