Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

The way the amendment is worded is it is not an exhaustive or exclusive list, in that it provides that "such prescribed documents shall include at least information on the following" but there can of course be lots of more information sought and lots more prescribed documents. It is just to make sure these things are not missed and the amendment is worded that way.

We had a very good discussion yesterday, which I will not repeat, around the importance of human health and well-being in the planning process. It was acknowledged by the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, that the concept of well-being was not really talked about 25 years ago when the last legislation was made. Human health and well-being, while we go back to planning 100 years ago, was at the forefront of town planning and designed areas it has often been missed along the way as not necessarily a key component when the sheer volumes or the structural side of things is looked at.

We have a very necessary move towards increased density in our planning process in the country in terms of compact growth and sustainability around that. It is critically important to get that right and that higher-density communities are well-designed, have good amenities and good open spaces. Having the frame of human health and well-being within our national planning framework is really important to getting that design right and getting the sports facilities and all the things that are needed to make those more compact developments work. In my view it is really important that this runs through our entire planning process and definitely the national planning framework.

If we were in a situation where all of this stuff was being got right I would not feel the need for this amendment. However, I can absolutely tell the Minister of State, and I do not say this with any kind of pleasure, that areas of my constituency have had newer developments in recent years that have not been designed and planned well and where human health and well-being is not to the forefront of the delivery of housing. We are getting the housing but not the infrastructure and amenities needed with that. It is having huge social impacts on those newer communities. The newer communities there are crying out for the facilities needed to ensure their human health and everything that flows from that. There are higher-density areas built around the playground but then the playground was taken out when the development is finished because the issues around taking in charge and all the rest are not dealt with properly in our planning legislation. I have amendments related to that but this needs to flow through everything we do and absolutely needs to flow through the national planning framework.

As the Minister of State referenced, there can be great policy documents and strategies done at Government and State level but when they are not, the Minister of State will be aware there can be silos where documents are done by particular Departments but when they are not done by the lead Department in an area, it is not always encompassed across everything. It is really important that if there is good stuff done around human health and well-being, for example by other Departments, that it makes it into the prescribed documents that inform the national planning framework. That is what this amendment seeks to do. Paragraph (a) of the amendment is around demographic and population changes and is absolutely key in terms of meeting housing need and paragraph (b) is around key issues on environment such as greenhouse gas emissions, air quality, water quality and biodiversity loss. As this is so important to getting the planning right and the national planning framework right, I ask the Minister of State to consider the amendment and to consider agreeing to it or dealing with it on Report Stage.