Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

On this issue of documents that would be required by planning authorities for planning applications and which the planning regulator would ask for, I wonder if this is an appropriate place for the Minister to consider an amendment which I may put on Report Stage. One of the things that the Mahon tribunal recommended was that people making a planning application should have to disclose any political donations they had made, any membership of a political party and so on. The Minister may have referred to it earlier, but it is also something that could be put in here. It would seem to me that it is an absolutely critical requirement to rule out some of the abuses that we have seen in the past. It could even be added in as a third item to the points that the Minister has about documents that would be required.

People should be able to go online and to check out an application to see, for example, if a developer is in NAMA. Has he or she fulfilled other developments? That was something we have all seen on councils when we were councillors - developers leaving an estate unfinished and launching another application. The planning authority does not seem to have any qualms about allowing them to have that application. I think much more in-depth information about applicants should be online, where people can see and access it.