John Moloney (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Bill and this opportunity to speak in its support. While the Bill is not the resolution to all planning problems, it is necessary. It is also slightly late but I support it nevertheless as its underlying theme is to deliver the infrastructure we will need to sustain and improve our quality of life.

In the County Laois part of my constituency, there have been significant developments in terms of road infrastructure improvements. Everyone in the House is aware of the Dublin to Cork and Dublin to Limerick motorways. While there were a number of objections during the planning process, time should have been provided in a different forum for people who had concerns, not necessarily objections, and who felt they were left out of the planning process. Over the years, we have all made the point that local public representatives should be involved in planning matters. However, that representation was curtailed to one-off housing or small developments while there was little input from local representatives in issues of considerable economic benefit to a county or constituency.

We must help to fast-track decisions to improve infrastructure if we are to meet the significant changes in future. This Bill is not controversial. While we have different ways of examining it, public representatives are ultimately meant to ensure value for money and the quick delivery of projects that will be of direct benefit. The Bill is not meant to curtail discussion or make it difficult for right-minded people to convey their concerns.

We must urgently improve our infrastructure to address the obvious changes in Irish life, particularly the increase in population. While cities have considerable infrastructural problems, the same problems are becoming the norm in heretofore rural areas. Other issues include the increase in employment levels, disposable income and new business investments.

I am not trying to criticise the planning process but I am from a small town where, in 1997, a ring-road was proposed. I wish our friend, the noted professor from Spain, was around at the time as the site dig has still not commenced nine years later. I do not mean to be critical of An Bord Pleanála or people with objections, but a 1.4 km ring-road that took take nine years to reach An Bord Pleanála could have been fast-tracked by allowing local public representatives and local objectors into the process.

Often, objectors are not objectors by their nature, but are people who voice their concerns. However, as soon as they do so, they are considered objectors and the process is closed to them. Under the new provisions, the process will be open to people with concerns who do not want to take the next step of becoming objectors. I am led to believe that conditions may be established whereby the ring-road could proceed and those conditions could meet the concerns of would-be objectors.

This situation is reflected throughout the country where significant infrastructural investments, supports and improvements have been proposed, but because of the outdated planning process, to give people time to make proposals, that process is delayed, which leads to cost over-runs. It is important that we take into account the national spatial strategy, which cannot succeed or advance at the speed we would like unless we provide the required infrastructural supports. If we are to deliver the spatial strategy, which must be an undercurrent in our economic development, specific supports must be in place.

That the Government is spending 5% of GNP on public infrastructure underlines the need to fast-track the process. Since 2000, the Government has invested €24 billion under the NDP to enhance our economic and social infrastructure. If we are to continue this trend, a further €34 billion investment in public transport under Transport 21 is on the cards. Economic progress cannot be secured if the planning process slows it down. The Government is drawing up the next national development plan and it behoves all Members to ensure the necessary infrastructural supports are in place to allow it to gain currency. We must update the planning process to deliver all the ambitious plans Members have suggested for their constituencies. If we do not tackle the blockages in the planning process, we could potentially add a further barrier to the infrastructural improvements we need for a dynamic, growing population.

I support openness and accountability in planning. We have all learned from past mistakes and must ensure that planning is transparent. I do not support the withholding of information or excluding people from the planning process. For the first time, instead of councils only being involved in a small area of planning, helping people with applications for a house or developers with applications for schemes, public representatives can feel they are involved in the securing of planning permission for projects that will bring great economic benefits to the area. They will be able to add to the considerations through their local knowledge, speeding up the process.

Under the strategic consent process, An Bord Pleanála will be required to consult the relevant local authorities and have due regard to their comments. This should have been in place years ago. Thinking back on the development of motorways out of Dublin and the public meetings that seemed to go on forever, much of the controversy could have been resolved if local landowners had been able to go to their public representatives who could then make their case at a consultative forum.

I commend the Bill to the House.

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