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

I move amendment No. 57:

In page 11, between lines 23 and 24, to insert the following: “(4)The content of any such direction shall be published in Iris Oifiguil, in at least one national newspaper, and on the websites of the Minister and of the Land Development Agency.”

As members will know, we had an important presentation and written submission by the Association of Irish Local Government, AILG, which represents local authority councillors from all parties and none, when representatives presented to us some weeks ago. They expressed significant concerns about large parts of this legislation. While they were not opposed to the principle of a land development agency engaged in land management and residential development they were genuinely concerned that it would see a sidelining of the role of local authorities. The fear was that the important work of our local councillors representing local communities would not be taken into account to the same extent as it would be currently with the likes of city and county development plans, strategic development zones, local area plans and Part 8 planning applications, not to mention the thorny issue of section 183 land transfers, which councillors come up against.

The AILG submitted a significant number of amendments and I was more than happy to table them. These are the first two. Amendment No. 57 specifically has a requirement that a direction from the Minister will be published in Iris Oifigúiland at least one nationwide newspaper as well as on the websites of the Minister and the LDA. This is important. This is the argument of the AILG not of Sinn Féin. The AILG makes it clear that this is to ensure transparency. The fear of the AILG representatives is that with the section as currently worded local authorities would not have visibility of a ministerial directive relative to the LDA. That could have significant implications for the local authority, elected members and the wider community in terms of housing and planning operations.

I will set out the position with respect to amendment No. 58 as someone who argued strongly against the strategic housing development legislation in 2016 when others abstained and allowed it to go through. One of the reasons we are seeing an increasing number of large residential housing developments being challenged in the courts is because they are over-riding the city and county development plans. They are actively excluding not only elected members but, crucially, local communities from constructively participating in good planning practices. Amendment No. 58 explicitly requires the Minister to ensure that any directive should have regard to city and county development plans, local area plans and other statutory plans made by the local authority. Given that we now have the Office of the Planning Regulator to ensure consistency in the new round of city and county development plans with Government planning policy, I can see no reason why the Minister would not accept these two reasonable amendments. Again, I emphasise they are not Sinn Féin amendments. They are cross-party and no-party amendments tabled by AILG. I hope the Minister will accept both and I will be interested to hear his response.