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

We all have seen cases over the years of very poor planning and poor planning outcomes when there has been competition between local authorities. I will not name those local authorities, although perhaps I should do so. There are local authorities that have given planning permission right on the border of the jurisdiction of their neighbouring local authority in ways that undermine the objectives of the development plan of the latter. It is very hard to see it as being about anything other than trying to capture rates that otherwise would be due to the neighbouring local authority. There have been some very poor planning decisions as a result, some of which go against good sustainability policies. There has been some very car-dependent planning policy on that basis. Some very large commercial premises have been built right on the border of another local authority area that are not necessarily in ideal locations in terms of how they integrate with existing development and so on. We sometimes see that type of competition between local authorities and planning authorities undermining good standards and good planning.

Why would we not want to have the core objectives of planning authorities aligned in terms of making and varying development plans? Over the years, we have seen some variances made to development plans in a way that undermines good planning. They might involve rezoning land on the border of another local authority's functional area in order that the local authority doing the rezoning can, in effect, capture very large rate bases. It is a strategic, opportunistic rezoning that undermines sustainable development patterns. It has happened with some very large rate bases.

Retaining the words "insofar as is practicable" in this subsection means we will not have that alignment in terms of objectives. That leaves the door open to continued poor planning outcomes. For example, a local authority might have a very good objective to implement consolidated development using brownfield sites in its area. A neighbouring local authority could undermine that by rezoning a greenfield site on the border between the two local authority areas. One local authority is doing the responsible thing in trying to fill out its brownfield sites, put large commercial development in places with good public transport connections and all those sorts of things. It could be undermined by a neighbouring authority ignoring the first authority's overall objectives and deciding to go off and do something different altogether as a result of which it will be the beneficiary of a massive rates income. We need to be careful with the language in this provision. We should remove "insofar as is practicable".