Francis Noel Duffy (Dublin South West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank all of the witnesses for sharing their positions and insights. Their contributions have been great and are very important in assisting us with this proposed legislation.

I broadly agree with the comments made by Mr. Robin Mandal on how the SHD scheme, while having good intentions, did not deliver in fast-tracking housing and instead created a new form of housing, namely, build-to-rent, which, to my mind locked people out of purchasing property in their own communities and effectively created transient communities. Since 2017, I have spoken on the record against the SHD system due to the fact that, as mentioned already, it bypasses the democratically mandated development plans, contravenes same and, as people have already said, gets seriously limited public scrutiny.

Regarding the new legislation, the planning process was, as far as I know, designed with specific timelines to allow time to consider and analyse applications. I have been making applications for 30 years and I believe the system works, considering the five-week submission time that allows the public to consider an application and make observations, the four-week period for the local authority to assess the application and make a decision and then the further four-week period to allow all parties to appeal those decisions, if they wish. Introducing shortcuts into the system and reducing the further information process is, therefore, concerning. It is a complex process to make a planning application and fast-tracking applications of this scale might, I fear, cause the types of problems that are realised through rushing procedures.

I have one simple question and one supplementary. This question is for the representatives of the CCMA and it has been touched on quite a bit. Has an analysis been conducted of the staff resourcing required to deliver the new processes? If so, how many staff will be required in each local authority to mitigate this potential issue? I ask that question in the context of the regular planning process being very slow now and, from what I understand, some applications are being pushed out to six months in the context of the further information process. I asked the officials from the Department this next query on Tuesday. It concerns the 2018 circular that prohibited councillors being briefed on planning applications. We were told that is not the case and that councillors are allowed to be briefed on a planning application if they request it. Notes would not be taken, but the public representatives could be briefed on an application. Will the representatives from the CCMA clarify if that is the case? Mr. Paul Hogan stated that the Department might have to send out another circular to inform local authorities that councillors can request applications and be briefed on them. I thank the witnesses.