Pat Casey (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will be fairly brief. It is vitally important that we have a balance here. It is critical to maintain democratic control over the process, and with that, political accountability.

We are in a different place today than we were a few decades ago. I have been through three county development plans and several local area plans during that period and there has been significant change from my first one, in 2004, to the current one that was adopted last year. We have seen, even in the past four to six years, the Minister's intervention in the county development plans has been ramped up significantly compared to what it was on the first plan in which I was involved.

On transparency, a lot of what has been recommended in this Bill is already in place, in my local authority and maybe some other local authorities, in terms of following exactly how decisions are made. From the start of expressions of interest in the preparation of a draft plan right through to the final adoption of a draft plan, every aspect is now available on the website. Anybody can go in and look at any stage at what decisions were made, when they were made, who made them and who proposed them. We must acknowledge that we are in a different place today than where we were some time ago.

It is vital that we keep democratic control and political accountability. Those are two vital pillars. The planning regulator adds another layer of scrutiny to plans before they are finally adopted on top of what we already have and I would be comfortable and confident enough that there is enough oversight in what is being proposed here.