Dr. Diarmuid Torney:

I thank Deputy O'Rourke. He raised a really good point. In undertaking the scale of transformational change that needs to be delivered there is a real challenge and risk of turning local populations against decisions and further against the political system and the Government. We are living in an era where there is declining trust in public institutions, governments, the media and experts not just in Ireland, but across the world. We need to be very careful in how we undertake this transformation and make sure that people feel like they have a stake in the decisions because a significant amount of research points to the importance of the procedure of justice. People are much more likely to accept decisions that disfavour them if they think that the process through which those decisions were taken is fair.

The Deputy referenced deliberative democracy. Something like a citizens' assembly is probably too big and costly for individual planning decisions but the principle underpinning the citizens' assembly, which gives ordinary members of the public access to relevant information and time to deliberate on it, is a model of decision-making and involving the public that we could usefully consider in other contexts as well.