Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 181:

In page 64, to delete lines 18 to 29 and substitute the following:

“(3) When the Minister proposes to issue, amend or revoke a National Planning Statement, the Minister shall consult with the relevant Joint Oireachtas Committee on the draft National Planning Statement and give due consideration to any recommendations it makes in respect of the draft.

(4) When the Minister proposes to issue, amend or revoke a National Planning Statement, the Minister shall lay before each House of the Oireachtas—

(a) a draft of the new, amended or revoked National Planning Statement, and

(b) any screening decisions or assessments required under either the Strategic Environmental Assessment Directive or the Habitats Directive, or under both Directives as may be required,

and such draft Statement shall not be made or a Statement revoked, as the case may be, until a resolution approving the draft of the new or amended Statement or the revocation of a Statement is passed by each such House, following a debate of no less than 2 hours.

(5) The Minister shall publish on a website maintained by or on behalf of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage—

(a) a National Planning Statement,

(b) notice of an amendment of a National Planning Statement and a copy of the National Planning Statement as amended, and

(c) notice of the revocation of any National Planning Statement.

(6) The Minister shall cause to be made a communication strategy and give effect to that communication strategy in order to ensure effective and widespread notice of the new, amended or revoked National Planning Statement is achieved with the public, and to highlight its potential implications, and the processes which it will drive at national, regional and county level.

(7) A National Planning Statement, amendment or revocation published under subsection (3) shall take effect on the date of its publication, or on such date as may be specified therein where that is later than the publication date.”.

Although the amendments are grouped, they are distinct. I do not wish to repeat the conversation we just had regarding the process. The amendment relates to section 23 and, in particular, the ability of the Minister, with the approval of the Government, to revoke national planning policy statements. The amendment sets out a mechanism for doing that. We have kind of dealt with that. It is not dissimilar from our previous discussion regarding their approval. I will raise a few concerns, however, in respect of the mechanism through which revocation currently is proposed. Let us imagine a scenario where the Minister makes a series of progressive changes to planning, this legislation passes, the Government runs its full terms and a series of national planning policy statements are created or former section 28 ministerial guidelines are transposed into national planning policy statements. Let us suppose there is then a change of Government, the Minister is replaced by a bad Minister and a bad Government replaces the current one, God forbid, and decides to undo all the Minister's good work. The Oireachtas would have no role whatsoever in that scenario. The revocation is simply a function of the Minister seeking the approval of the Cabinet. I know there are general provisions with regard to taking on board the views of others, but where are the safeguards to ensure that good planning policy introduced by a good Government that is in the public interest and meets the principles of good planning and good climate action cannot be literally overturned by a decision of another Government? Surely there should be a mechanism to give the Oireachtas some oversight or an opportunity to raise concerns with such revocation, particularly given the significance of the planning policy statements, as we have discussed previously.