Caít Keane (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is pity we need to have a regulator over planning and that the people who are elected and selected and have jobs in planning and so on cannot be trusted to do the right thing. It is a fact in all spheres of life that we have to have regulators and we have all seen what happened with crashes. It is welcome that we will have a regulator. Sometimes the regional planning guidelines and guidelines on enforcement were looked at and disregarded.

I noted what Mr. Sheridan said on enforcement. During the boom there was plenty of money in the planning and enforcement sections. It is not all about throwing money at enforcement. What is important is that when things are written down, we must read and implement them. If we all do that we will have better planning all around.

I have a question on the relationship between the new office of office of the planning regulator, OPR, and An Bord Pleanála. We hear about quangos. Is this another body on planning, with its own office and staff? An Bord Pleanála deals with appeals, but in addition, strategic development proposals go straight to An Bord Pleanála. This new office of the planning regulator will lay out the regulation, but it must be synchronised with An Bord Pleanála. Could there be a reduction of staff in one area to complement the other area, so that there will be no duplication of staff? I cannot see, for the life of me, why it would be necessary to have a significant number of staff in An Bord Pleanála as well as staff in the office of the planning regulator. I would like to get some information on that, particularly in relation to strategic infrastructural development.

The actual recommendations to split all of the legislative revisions into two Bills is a good idea. We know that the enactment of the provisions of the planning and development Bill is necessary and must be fast-tracked to ensure houses come on stream quickly. The No. 2 Bill will deal with the national spatial strategy, and has been retitled the national planning framework. Why was it necessary to make this change?

What happened in the past is that there was rezoning but no provision was made for infrastructure such as water. I served on the council in South Dublin and we always said that if the then health board, the local authority, the ESB and every other body worked together we would save a great deal of money. I welcome the recommendations.