Ciarán Cuffe (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)

Perhaps we should step outside for a chat about it. I am concerned about such a charge being made in the House and do not know whether I am protected under Standing Orders.

This Bill is about reform and greater regulatory oversight of the planning system. Everyone in this Chamber would agree that the planning system failed us dramatically in regard to oversight and over development. This is the reason for NAMA and ghost estates. We need to ask what went wrong and how we can avoid such dramatically bad planning in the future. That is one of the fundamental reasons for this Bill.

All future zoning decisions will be required to be plan led and evidence based and should assist in working towards the national interest and efficient use of taxpayer investment in infrastructure. It is a simple choice between a developer-led planning system or a plan-based one. Either we take a laissez faire approach in which developers call the shots, which happened on far too many occasions in the past, or we co-ordinate our policies and ensure the views of the public matter. This Bill takes the latter approach.

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