John Cregan (Limerick West, Fianna Fail)

I am glad to have the opportunity to make a brief contribution on this critical legislation. I warmly welcome that the Planning and Development Act is being amended to provide for the following. There is the introduction of a strategic consent process for strategic infrastructure of national importance provided by other statutory bodies and private promoters. There is also the restructuring of An Bord Pleanála to allow for the establishment of a strategic infrastructure division to handle all major infrastructure projects.

The types of infrastructure which can be processed include major environmental transport and energy-related projects. The decision as to whether a particular project is to be taken under a strategic consent process is a matter entirely, in each case, for An Bord Pleanála. Each application will be looked at individually.

I welcome the introduction of a one-step strategic consent procedure for certain types of major infrastructure. Responsibility for deciding on approvals of railway orders, including light rail and metros, will now be transferred from the Minister for Transport to An Bord Pleanála. A new division will be established within An Bord Pleanála to handle decisions on all major infrastructure projects. It will include major local authority projects and motorways, which are already the responsibility of An Bord Pleanála. Included in this also are strategic gas infrastructure consents, major electricity transmission lines and railway orders.

The types of infrastructure to be covered by the strategic consent process include environmental, energy and transport infrastructure. Persons or bodies, including State and semi-State organisations, seeking permission for those types of strategic infrastructure will apply first to An Bord Pleanála for a decision on whether the particular project is of strategic importance.

Where An Bord Pleanála decides the project is of strategic importance, an application with an environmental impact statement can be made directly to the board. The public, the local authority — including elected members — and interested stakeholders will be consulted and their views taken into account. Major changes to the way in which the board handles infrastructure consents include the possibility of pre-application discussions with the applicant and more flexibility in the decision which the board can make on the application. I particularly welcome this increased flexibility. The Bill gives power to the board to amend decisions on major infrastructure projects, subject to an assessment of major environmental impacts, and to require infrastructure providers to provide direct benefits to communities affected by major infrastructure projects. It also requires the board to have regard to the national interest and to the effect a decision may have on issues of strategic or economic importance to the State, as well as the national spatial strategy and any regional planning guidelines in force in an area.

It is important to acknowledge a number of the measures in the Bill to strengthen local democracy. It proposes expanding the existing role of An Bord Pleanála, which is already responsible for deciding on roads, motorways, water and local authority waste water proposals, on all of which it consults widely. It proposes extending the opportunities of local communities, residence groups, environmental groups and ordinary citizens to comment on applications, which is very welcome. I particularly welcome the facility for elected members to express their views to the board on applications made under the proposed strategic consent process. Currently none of the public representatives present has the opportunity to make known to An Bord Pleanála his or her views or those of the people he or she represents. We are not recognised and have no official part to play in the process so I welcome the additional role public representatives, at local and national level, will have. While we are involved in the planning process via our engagement with the local authorities that does not continue when An Bord Pleanála assumes responsibility for a project.

In our modern economy many new infrastructural requirements have a national dimension. To build on ongoing development the country must have an infrastructure consent procedure which recognises the national dimension but also takes into account local concerns. The Bill promotes an acceleration of the planning process for critical infrastructure but democracy should be respected and local concerns taken into account in pursuit of a balanced solution, which did not exist in the past.

Section 35 of the Planning Act is to be amended to make it easier for authorities to refuse consent without recourse to the High Court. Instead it will be for the applicant who has been refused permission to seek an order from the High Court that the local authority reconsider its initial decision. This has the effect of reversing the burden of proof. The developer will instead have to show that his or her past performance does not warrant the refusal of permission. It should make it easier for local authorities to tackle poor performance by rogue developers.

The Government has been concerned by delays caused by lengthy challenges to major projects. The President of the High Court will introduce new arrangements to improve procedures for such cases, including the designation of specific judges to manage the process. This will build on the precedent of the commercial court and should have a similar impact on improving case management. There have been many examples of inexplicable delays in critical pieces of infrastructure, in some cases for very trivial reasons.

I am a man of nature and we all recall the snail on the Kildare bypass. A constituent of mine was considering moving a roadside hedgerow to make a substandard road safer. A local authority planner — I meet many on a daily basis — told him he was to leave the hedgerow in place. I dispute that policy because people must come first and wildlife second. I hold that opinion very strongly and believe we should accommodate people. I am deviating from the subject but sometimes we show too much concern for wildlife at the expense of people, such as applicants for once-off housing.

The Bill will provide for a better service for all stakeholders, namely infrastructure providers, State bodies, and the general public. Public representatives are, for the first time, to be allowed to deal with the board in an official capacity. The board will, in some cases, be obliged to enter into consultation with public representatives.

It also proposes a single stage process for the approval of projects, a rigorous assessment of all projects, including environmental impacts, full public consultation and certainty of timeframes. All Members will have experience in their own constituencies of mobile telephone companies siting or proposing to site telecommunications masts in built-up residential areas, near schools, hospitals or houses. They are critical pieces of infrastructure and we all want a mobile telephone service in this age of technology but it is difficult to know why applicants do not enter into more consultation or exercise more care as to where they site their masts. They seem to just pick a spot, often belonging to vulnerable landowners. Before the owners know what has happened they are tied into a contract and all hell breaks loose in a parish. I have seen parishes divided on the issue. I compliment the efforts and the responsible manner in which my local authority, Limerick County Council, and the director of services and planning and his officials, have dealt with such applications in the past. On the one hand they have acknowledged the need for such critical infrastructure but on the other have heeded the concerns of people on the ground.

While I have no more evidence than anybody else that a mobile telephone mast can damage health, the jury is out. While the jury is out we must err on the side of caution. If we realise in ten or 15 years' time that they can damage health it will be too late. I do not know if mobile telephone masts will be included as critical infrastructure but my preference is for them to be treated as they currently are, proceeding through local democratic channels and the local planning process, in which I have the utmost faith.

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