Dr. Conor Norton:

I will deal with the planning matters raised by Deputy Casey. Professionally, I am a planner also and strongly agree with the sentiment expressed by the Deputy about making sure local decision-making takes place at a local level. I am also a member of the Irish Planning Institute. We are strongly in favour of returning the proposals for strategic housing developments back to local level. I believe in local democracy. From our perspective, this situation is unique. It is perhaps an emergency. Inconsistent delivery is an issue and a problem that has been highlighted repeatedly. It was raised in the consultation on numerous occasions. We produced a detailed report on our consultation and Part 8 kept cropping up. What we are suggesting is that it is very much a short-term measure and that it be put in place, pending the fixes made to the planning system. The critical point, on which Deputy Casey put his finger, is that there is a need for better local plans and local resourcing. We need to be more specific in the plan-making process about what we mean in the context of the provision of Traveller accommodation. The evidence must be available and we must be far more specific and give a clearer indication to the community, the elected representatives and others as to where we intend to develop Traveller-specific accommodation, how we are supposed to provide it and the timeline involved.

We have found that it is not consistently the approach across local authorities. Therefore, we are suggesting it be a short-term measure. In a situation where there is a fixed planning system, ideally, what we would have is planning and design guidance that would show the way local authorities could plan better Traveller accommodation in some consistent framework which would also provide backup guidance on design and other matters. In the guidance one would also wrap methodologies for assessing demand and also perhaps consultation and dealing with other such matters. There could be comprehensive and integrated guidance that would provide the basis for returning the decision-making processes to the local level, certainly at the end of the Part 8 process. Some of the issues we have had in this area include that planning for the provision of Traveller-specific accommodation is a long-term process, at the very end of which is a decision-making stage under Part 8 involving the elected representatives. We suggest there be a suspension of it for a short period and a review while we make the larger fixes to the planning system.

I agree with Deputy Casey. We have lessons to learn from strategic housing development. It might perhaps be extended for a further period of two years, but, like the provisions we are proposing for Traveller-specific accommodation, the processes will return to the local level, at which time we would have comprehensive and robust guidelines for how we would manage the planning and design of Traveller-specific accommodation.