Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Ms Graham and the other officials from the Department. These engagements have been meaningful. Most of what I say will reinforce what Deputy Ó Broin said. Ms Graham spoke first on the issues of clarity and consistency, which are two keywords. This is about communication and about people understanding the various players in the planning process and the clarity and consistency of approach.

I know we cannot talk too much about An Bord Pleanála today, but it would be remiss of me not to mention that last night a local authority passed a vote of no confidence in the board. I understand similar motions will be voted on across all the local authorities in the coming weeks and that is an unprecedented situation. It does not instil confidence when 31 local authorities, that are at the front line of planning, are questioning the confidence in the planning system. However, we have to go through the processes in place and that will eventually come to an end.

I refer next to the OPR, which Ms Graham referred to. We have learned a lot about the OPR, I am personally a supporter of it and its work, but it is evolving and learning. There certainly are big issues and vexed questions about the OPR regarding the understanding of county development plans. Indeed, I was reading a report in recent days about the role and possible role of the OPR in another planning authority, An Bord Pleanála, although it is at a different level. We need greater clarity on its functions. Planning is a small area. Ireland is a small place. The players involved know of each other but greater clarity is needed as well as distance between the OPR and the Department, which Deputy Ó Broin mentioned earlier. It is a question of tweaking the communication aspect and the clarification of the role, such as that when someone wants to make a complaint, it would be reasonable to request that it would go through the various stages and processes first at a local level. We need to be absolutely clear on what the OPR's role is in the elevation of a complaint against a planning authority. I believe there is a lack of clarity around that. There is also a lack of clarity about the role of the OPR in reviewing city and county development plans, which creates tension. This is not to say it is right or wrong; I am just saying there needs to be greater clarity. Ms Graham raised the training remit of the OPR, and I understand that as does Ms. Graham, but more work needs to be done there in terms of how the officials and elected members understand that role. Of course, there must be a tier of planning and we have to comply with national guidelines etc.

The other matter is the resourcing issue. Clearly, there needs to be a forensic and detailed audit of the resources to the 31 local authorities. Perhaps not all the skill sets are there. We talk about ecologists, conservationists, architects, and planners. There is synergy between architecture and planning. Some local authorities have a greater synergy between the two areas. Some local authorities run two different departments. It seems to be the case that there are different issues in different local authorities. A lot of the resourcing issues could be addressed if we embraced digital technology. By way of an example, I spoke to someone in one of the planning bodies in which, up to recently, applicants in respect of a protected structure had to provide up to ten copies of the application, coloured pictures and coloured sets of maps, and send them all over the place.

Now some of the local authorities are saying "No". They are telling people, as an initial alert, that they can access these documents online in the first instance and if they want more details, they will facilitate them. If we embrace technology, we can do so much more with our planning systems. I really think we could be at the cutting edge in that regard if we were to take that on. Again, we hear constantly that the board is trialling and reviewing systems and that local authorities are doing different systems. Covid-19 taught us one thing - when we were forced to embrace technology, even here in the Parliament, we suddenly realised we could do it. There is the potential to develop all of that.

There are two or three key issues with regard to the OPR and resources. It is also about the deploying of resources. There will be greater demands on a planning authority during the preparation of a county development plan than at other times. There must, therefore, be flexibility in the deployment of resources. There has to be potentially greater synergies between clusters of local authorities in the planning function. That is a real opportunity for the clustering of skill sets, resources and expertise. I am not saying that there must be outsourcing, but the potential can be there at times and not at other times. We need to look more imaginatively at how we can cluster planning within the regions in terms of personnel.

Those are just some thoughts. I thank the witnesses for their time. It is a really positive engagement. It is very helpful for the committee that the witnesses are here and that we are having this engagement.