I am delighted Senator O'Donovan is here to tell his tale and I concur with him on the importance of the condition of epilepsy.

I call for a debate on the issue of planning. Every element of our infrastructure is dependent on our planning process. In the main it is open and transparent and allows for objections and submissions to the supreme authority for appeals, An Bord Pleanála. The duration of some cases and in particular the open-ended nature of the legal challenges to decisions frustrate the process, making infrastructure expensive. NIMBYism is alive and well. All this adds to the cost of delivery of many projects, a cost borne by our local authorities and the State and, in the case of housing, a cost that is added to house prices by the eventual developer, or a cost that causes a developer to give up and not try on that site again or indeed anywhere else. Housing, roads, greenways and wastewater schemes can all be subject to the lengthy legal challenges that delay projects which are much needed for development, sustainability, job creation and environmental protection.

Former Supreme Court judge, Susan Denham, proposes a separate jurisdiction of the High Court for planning and environmental law similar to family law. This is due to it being a technical issue in nature. I understand that the programme for Government proposes such a court. As we continue to grow our economy through capital expenditure, timely decisions and decision-making are necessary and in all our interests. A legal impasse lasting years benefits nobody except those earning money from it, the legal profession and environmental experts. Meanwhile, communities are frustrated by delays lasting in some cases years in the provision of key infrastructure for homes. The south Kerry greenway is a project in point and a test case for greenways across the country. The old Galway city bypass went through the Irish courts before ending up in the European Court of Justice, which is fine, but the process was inordinately long, with huge delays. The Apple case in Athenry is another example. The project did not proceed because Apple said it had had enough due to the delays. Objectors using the system to frustrate and delay, delay and delay a project is not right or proper. A yes-no decision in a timely manner is what is needed in this country for all types of projects.

I therefore call for a debate on the matter of planning delays at an early juncture in the context of the progress on the proposals in the programme for Government on the numerous examples we have around the country of projects being delayed, predominantly because of the open-ended nature of the appeals process through our courts and the European courts as well. Planning is hugely important. As I said, it allows all projects to proceed. Thankfully, we have a robust planning system, but we need a timely and efficient one as well for the reasons I outlined earlier.

I thank my colleague, Senator O'Donovan, for speaking out today. So many people do not speak out. I have personal experience within my family of somebody with epilepsy and it is a tough station.

I thank Senator Kyne for raising the planning issue. We have seen what it did in Galway and Athenry, particularly, and it would be good to have that debate.

I am very proud to stand here this morning and to advise anybody who does not know that Ireland's first female Defence Forces general has smashed through the glass ceiling in defence. Major General Maureen O'Brien has been promoted and will serve her time, for now anyway, as military adviser to the United Nations Secretary General. This is a very proud moment for Ireland. However, such good news has been soured slightly by the story that ran in the Irish Examiner at the weekend of Chief Petty Officer Tadhg McCarthy, who after 24 years as an engine room artificer, has left the Naval Service.

In leaving the service, he speaks of a vicious cycle. The less the manpower available, the more the Naval Service is asking of the people who are left and the increased pressure is, in turn, leading more people to leave. I note that Commodore Malone was obliged to take two ships out of service last year and it looks very much as though more will be taken out of service in the not-too-distant future.

Mr. McCarthy addressed the Government initiative, the sea service commitment scheme, and pointed out that it has led to a two-tier Naval Service. Someone who has served longer than three years has an entitlement to the €10,000 pay-out but those with less than three years' service do not qualify for that payment. PDFORRA and the Representative Association of Commissioned Officers, RACO, have both maintained that increasing special allowances across all boards would be vitally important and it was part of the high-level implementation plan. As the Deputy Leader has worn the uniform with pride herself, she will understand where I am coming from here today.

The Government does not have time for the Commission on the Defence Forces to report. Too many people are leaving right now. We have seen in the case of the Air Corps that once brought in, an initiative can have a dramatic effect on retention if it is implemented quickly. We need to start an implementation process right across the Defence Forces or there will be nobody left. PDFORRA has constantly asked for membership of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, ICTU. The Minister has said "No" and that he favours a commission on pay instead. Unless that commission can go outside the terms of national pay agreements agreed with ICTU, we are simply going nowhere.

Finally, those of us in politics, in uniform and in the Civil Service who have overseen the decline and destruction of the Defence Forces need to hang our heads in shame. What has gone on is outrageous. The first and most loyal to respond every time are being treated appallingly.