Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 16 May 2023

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government

General Scheme of the Land Value Sharing and Urban Development Zones Bill 2022: Discussion (Resumed)

Dr. Se?n O'Leary:

By way of context, my PhD was on sustainable development in Knocknaheeny. Ultimately, it found the whole concept of sustainable communities in places like Knocknaheeny was based solely on tenure and that there was no discussion about services or anything else, as the Deputy knows that better than anyone. That was the finding. To put 80,000 words in a sentence, there was a concept of sustainable communities without engaging with what made a sustainable community. Mr. Jones and Mr. Keran might refer to the other aspects of the Bill.

To give the local context, because I am from Cork, there are 38 planning students in the school in Cork and they will be graduating this year and next year. Again, however, there are fewer students in first year than second year, which is a problem. Once one has a qualification, one still needs two years of post-qualification experience before we feel one can become a full member of our institute. The Deputy is right that there is a very big lag. It is probably incumbent on all of us to try to make planning a little more attractive. That is my pitch for Cork. Does Mr. Jones want to add anything?

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