Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will direct my questions to the representatives from the RIAI. I will not rehash what has been said, but I think there is a strong case for a county plan and a county architect with statutory functions in order that managers and staff are not under the pressure. Anecdotally, I have heard of city and county managers putting pressure on or the staff feeling pressurised to deliver a result in the planning application that they are not comfortable with. We will leave it at that. I think that is an issue. I invite the witnesses to hammer home their case because it is an important one and I do not think it has been heard. Two CEOs met me recently to tell me that if they had the option, they would rather have a county planner. That is the background to what I am saying. I also think there is need for an emphasis on landscape architects. They are critical. We do not live only in buildings. We live in communities, the public realm and public space. I emphasise the importance of the environment around landscape. It is not all about trees, rows and shrubs and flowers. It is about a landscape and breathing and living biodiversity in our landscape. That is very important and should be part of this multidisciplinary approach. I am not asking a particular question about that.

I draw people's attention to HafenCity in Hamburg. Anyone who wants to talk about planning or architecture needs to go to HafenCity, which is an extended quarter in Hamburg, and see the building, the design, the consultation, and the mix of arts, culture and creative spaces. There is work, play and everything going on in the same space. It is an amazing opportunity and I ask everyone to look it up so they can see what I am talking about.

I will touch on the issue of e-planning in terms of architects, because my experience in local authorities is that conservation officers tend to work with the architects department and not the planning department. That all needs to merge in.

On protected structures, prescribed bodies like An Taisce have a huge role to play in monitoring protected structure applications. What I am hearing is that many councils do not even have colour scanners. There is a rich archive of information that includes conservation reports, inventories etc. That material is now lost. One of the great organisations is the Irish Architectural Archive on the other side of Merrion Square. I know it is taking in applications. I think somewhere in the Bill we need to cover with legislation what happens to it. So many hard copy applications, details of applications, and sets of drawings are lodged, but we need a repository and a national archive that is funded and resourced and takes in all this material.

In terms of the legislation, what are the challenges around protected structures? Other witnesses appeared before the committee and talked about protected structures. There needs to be a phasing down or listing of protected structures. It has been said that a necklace of protected structures is impeding development. What a thing to say, but I have heard that said. Will the witnesses focus their contributions on the challenges around protected structures and any watering down of powers to designate protected structures? I am also hearing a lot of language around empowering members to delete records for the protected structures. This is an area in which I have a huge interest, and it is a very sensitive area. I would like to hear the views of the representatives of the RIAI first.