Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge the Minister's openness to considering changes. As I stated on Second Stage, we support the establishment of the planning regulator. It is a very important addition to our planning architecture and was strongly recommended by the tribunal. However, it is really important that we have a body that is not just consultative and that does not just evaluate and assess while the power to act rests in the main with the Minister. If a regulator is to really add value to the planning system, it has to have some independent ability to act.

I do not anticipate that the Minister will accept my amendments in this section or others. I am not going to try to convince him of their merits. I only ask him to go away and think, between now and Report Stage, about what the Government could do to give additional powers to the regulator. In whatever areas the Department thinks are appropriate, it is my view that the regulator should not simply be making suggestions to the Minister, which is essentially what the Act recommends, but that it should have powers to make binding determinations, or the ability to intervene independently of Government.

My fear is that, without provision for such a scope of action, we will have a toothless tiger and that is not what the Mahon tribunal recommended. I made the point on Second Stage that one of the tribunal's related recommendations highlighted the need to shift power away from the Minister and the Department. The concern that I and other planning commentators have is that the Bill seems to move in the opposite direction. I think that is a real fundamental flaw. I am not seeking to make politics. We are going to support this Bill whatever its final shape. However, I do think there is more work to be done. In proposing amendments Nos. 6 to 11, inclusive, I am raising these issues and urge the Minister to consider how he might act.

I am not clear from the functions of office as outlined on page 7 whether, for example, in addition to carrying out investigations and evaluations of planning authorities and decisions, the office of the regulator could do the same with the Minister or the Department. I think that would also be a very important function, not that I am at all suggesting that the current Minister or any of his officials need to undergo planning-related investigations. It would strengthen the regulator's independence if it had that additional function of holding the Minister and the Department to account in certain defined areas.