Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I thank the representatives of An Bord Pleanála and the Department for coming before the committee. Their attendance is appreciated. From the conversations I have had with planners in particular, I know they can be among the most critical voices on this issue. It is worth noting that many planners working in the system are not able to have a public voice on the matter. That comes across from a range of planners who have varying views in terms of development. The strategic housing development legislation is significantly flawed. The lack of an appeals process is highly problematic. Only communities with sufficient resources are able to mount judicial reviews. The expense involved is a significant burden on communities that have the resources to pursue a judicial review, but it is deeply unfair on communities that do not have the capacity to so do. It undermines county and city development plans and local democracy, as well as undermining the delivery of community infrastructure alongside large-scale developments. There is an element in this whereby the usage of strategic housing developments increases the value of sites for people who are speculating on land to achieve planning permissions with higher densities and then flip the sites.

It is failing in its key objective, which is stated in terms of delivering housing on scale. We heard from An Bord Pleanála that 40,000 residential units have permitted under SHD provisions and, significantly, we have heard from the Department that only 29% of these have been activated. This compares unfavourably with the review from last year, which showed that 37% of permissions had been activated. At that stage, the then Minister said that this level was completely unacceptable and that the level should be at about 80%. I note the comment from An Bord Pleanála saying that this will level out at about 50%. This is far below the 80% figure anticipated or accepted by the Department and Minister. Does the Department agree that the SHD process is failing in its key objective of meeting that figure of 80%? Does the Department accept that some developers are using the SHD process to increase the value of their land before flipping it and selling it on?

The excellent submission we received from Killian Woods from the Business Postreferences the paper by Mick Lennon from UCD and Richard Waldron from Queen's University on de-democratising the Irish planning system. This paper was based on a series of off-the-record interviews with developers, planning consultants, civil servants, planners and politicians. One planning consultant told the authors that the fact that the public had the same right as the developer in the planning process was democracy gone way too far. Could the Department comment on that, the paper and the view expressed in the paper that developers had given recommendations to Government that had been taken on board lock, stock and barrel and put into the new housing Bill, which concerned the SHD? Indeed one politician told the authors that the Construction Industry Federation and others had captured the State in terms of policy. I would like to hear the Department's view on that.