Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I agree that it is a good Bill. It provides for the appointment of a planning regulator, which makes a great deal of sense. The weakness is not so much that the Minister has too much power but that councillors and elected members have too much power in the planning process, particularly regarding planning recommendations. I appreciate the difference between the powers of elected members in making a development plan as a reserved function and the power of officials, but I believe the abuse is where officials are often over-ruled and new development plans are put in place which bear no relationship to professional planning needs or advice. That is where my concern is. Historically, going back to the days of the late former Minister, James Tully, and so forth, a great deal of on-the-foot planning took place. I am not blaming the former Minister, James Tully, who represented part of my constituency. I know members of his family. Planning has changed significantly over the years but the wrong that has been done and the communities that have been disadvantaged are the result not of ministerial powers in the planning system but as a direct result of councillors over-ruling planners and insisting on developments which should never be there in the first place. They are now in place with all the consequent unreasonable demands that go with that, including pressure on services which should never occur.

Out of town shopping centres are a major example. They do not make planning sense yet they mushroomed everywhere. The only people who benefited in my view were the developers, not the communities. In terms of joined-up planning, particularly with regard to transport links between significant shopping developments and communities, there is a huge in-built disadvantage with those out of town shopping centres particularly for people who do not have a car and where there is no proper public transport in place. They have contributed significantly to the death of our urban town centres which, in many cases, are derelict and destroyed. Bad planning and the powers of elected members in the planning process have helped destroy those town centres.