Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I will move on. I do not know whether Deputy McAuliffe is online or in the Chamber. I can skip over him and bring him in next. That would make the next slot the second Green Party slot.

We spoke much about the conflict in planning, where we have objections to what is proposed or applied for. Ms Foster said that there is no consultation with residents and the developers seem to get a much better choice of it. However, where land is zoned, a long consultation process goes on. There is an indication that something will be built upon. Mr. Mandal will say they will come in and far exceed in a planning application what the councillors for the area had deemed to be appropriate zoning or density on the site. However, there is that process where it is the local councillors who craft a plan. They have to follow closely – they have a little bit of room to manoeuvre – regional and national planning, so there is that.

I have a question for our five guests. How do we take the conflict from the site notice part, from where people ask how is this happening, to them saying this is happening because there was a democratic process way back where this was decided. One of the objectives of this was to take the conflict out of the application stage - but not put the conflict at the forward planning stage. How do we engage more people? How do we get that development plan or local area plan until we replace it? How do we get better engagement, understanding and agreement in communities so they say, “We know this will go in and as long as it roughly aligns with what was proposed in the development plan, we do not have an objection to it.” How will we achieve that?