Pat Casey (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chair. All of the contributions we have heard contained references to the democratic process involved in the SHD process. Most of us feel that what is happening is not adequate. I do not think it is right. It is not fair on communities. We are governed by the national planning framework, which is a Government regulation. We must remember that nobody in this House had a democratic right to vote on the framework. There was no democratic input into the national planning framework. We are now asking communities that have not had their local area plans reviewed for many years - Newtownmountkennedy, for example, has not had a review for 20 years - to accept that they have no right of appeal when an SHD application is made. All they can do is make a submission. It is unfair because no community can afford a judicial review. This brings me back to the extent to which this whole process is subject to the democratic process. I cannot support this whole process because it is fundamentally flawed. Our communities are our heart. If we do not bring them with us, we are wasting our time. This is a reflection on the process, rather than on the board itself.

I would like to mention a few specifics. We spoke earlier about the second round of consultation. I want to tease this out. I have to say I still consider 36% as a failure. Are the witnesses telling us that these developers were informed at the end of the second part of the public consultation process - I am not talking about the part with the local authorities - that they would be wasting their time in the absence of serious significant information, such as an environmental impact assessment? If, as it seems, the developers proceeded to submit an application directly to the board, can they be said to be serious about delivering homes or are they merely interested in getting planning permission to flip the land?

I ask for the indulgence of the Chair because I have been sitting here since this morning. I think I am entitled to a bit more than two minutes. Having spent three years on the whole housing issue, I keep coming back to the question of local democracy. I am increasingly of the opinion that local authorities, local area plans and county development plans need to be taken to another level completely. Local area plans and county development plans set out how communities will be delivered and what type of infrastructure is needed. As somebody said here a week ago, there is a need for 3D planning that allows people to see how their communities will develop. That would allow us to start penalising developers who do not deliver. The infrastructure, the zoned land, the densities and the height are there. Too many unknowns are going into the SHDs. People have no input into them.

We all want to see planning working. We all want to see homes delivered. That is our purpose here. To be quite honest, I do not know whether the SHD process has delivered that at the end of the day. Ms Kenny said there has been an increase of 16% from the normal process. The success rate or approval rating for what has been put in has increased from 50% to 67%. I do not think that is a good return in light of the effort that has been made.