Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I want to go to the other end of the spectrum of the planning system and deal with local government plans. Mr. Cussen referred to the role of the Planning Regulator as a referee in the planning system. It is my experience that the regulator catches many of the non-compliant objectives that councillors can, from time to time, put into their local area and county plans. Sometimes the Minister issues a direction on that. There is a cumulative impact of many small and insignificant decisions being made in local area and county plans. We have all been councillors and gone through that process. I have found it sometimes to be one of the most frustrating processes ever when you look at the rationale applied in the context of objectives being put into plans. Maybe that is sometimes done with the view of kicking it up the line to the regulator or the chief executive in order not to be the bad guy. We get advice from Transport Infrastructure Ireland, the NTA, prescribed bodies, the senior planners and the chief executive not to do something but then it is done and goes into the plan. Is the Office of the Planning Regulator sufficiently staffed to catch the many small issues that can have a cumulative effect? In the context of planning, sometimes it is decided to stretch the boundaries of a settlement because a few more houses will not have a great impact in the context of, for example, transport. Local politicians are involved in the democratic process. They have an obligation to future generations and to the legacy of what they put in place. It is not just a case of making decisions that are popular now.