Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It will also mean increased densities and compact development, which are the source of many of our judicial reviews. The matter is out for public consultation. Regardless of the feedback, if we want to do something in the short term, the new planning and development Bill is over 700 pages long and will not be introduced any time soon. According to much of the engagement I have seen at meetings of the Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage, the Bill will worsen the number of legal cases that will be taken. That has been stated by a number of stakeholders qualified to make that assertion. If the Department wants to do something in the short term, for which I have been asking for three years, it could advise the Minister to introduce a specific planning policy requirement, SPPR, reducing densities across the national planning framework, to be instituted in all current and draft county development plans. This would not cost anything. Instead, the Department is firing taxpayers' money at developers to build shoe boxes and the ghettos of the future.