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

Yes. This is one of those instances of "We told you so". Members from a variety of parties who opposed this legislation when it was introduced in 2016 highlighted that it was designed to circumvent the city and county development plans. The legislation is clear. When taking a planning decision, local authorities must abide by city and county development plans. The board does not. The whole purpose of bypassing the local authority as the primary decider on planning applications is to make it easier for planning applications that would not have otherwise got permission to get permission. The problem is the legislation. I am not disagreeing in any respect with some of the decisions of the board.

We should review SHDs, but if we are to do so, we should invite the Irish Planning Institute and the City and County Management Association, CCMA, to comment. They will have strong views.

I would warn against adding many other issues to our discussion. We normally have the board attend once per year to throw all sorts of question at it. We should do that in our first calendar year. The Government gave a commitment to phase out the SHD legislation in 2021, but that could be in January or December. A strong report from this committee could have the effect of putting some pressure on the Government in a helpful way to deal with this significant issue much earlier. I suggest that we discuss the SHDs with the board, the CCMA and the Irish Planning Institute. The Department will also wish to comment, so that would make four. All of this would mean that other board-related issues would have to be kicked to a second meeting, which would realistically be in the first half of next year.