James Bannon (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister. It is often forgotten that the first victims of bad planning are people. Planning and all of the regulations and laws involved with it is a very important issue. During my 19 years on Longford County Council, I have seen countless examples of bad planning in my native county and throughout the wider midlands region. During the past two decades, the planning system has fallen victim to systematic corruption, a lack of transparency and the vested interests of developers. The loopholes in Ireland's planning laws ensured a complete lack of proper regulation. The repercussions of bad planning have had an appalling impact on the lives of people in every corner of the country. The number of people affected by bad planning is almost too high to count. Bad planning has resulted in development on flood plains, unnecessary over-zoning of lands by county councils and a blatant failure to protect water resources properly.

The Gleann Riada development in Ballyminion, County Longford is an example of building on a flood plain. The granting of planning in early 2004 was a surprise. The Ballyminion area was well known to flood and was better known for duck shooting than housing. Despite this, planning permission was granted for several hundred homes, a hotel, petrol station and retail units. Only 70 units were completed, the majority of which have since been demolished. Another example of terrible planning was the Carrigglas development just outside Longford town. The development had been in receivership until it was recently sold, and I wish the very best of good luck to the new owner. It sits on 600 acres of land with a proposal at the time to build 330 new homes. Once again, only a small percentage of these homes were built and the local community is left with the remains of a half-built ghost estate which was never lived in and which will remain unsuitable for agricultural use without a substantial investment. In 2013, Athlone saw the demolition of the unfinished Glenatore estate following a fatal tragedy.

All these mistakes have had a major impact on families and local communities and have resulted in a total lack of trust between the public and the planning process. I spoke on the issue of planning in this House during my first few years as a Deputy. Back then, I said that a casual attitude to planning, on a build now and think later basis, would be a recipe for disaster. I was right. Thankfully, now that the Mahon report has been published, we have an opportunity to rectify the wrongs, restore public confidence in the planning process and ensure we have a fully accountable system.

The Mahon report highlights the need for a planning system that has zero room for corrupt practices that could undermine the checks and balances that are now in place. One of the most important recommendations in the report relates to the appointment of a planning regulator. The core function of the new regulator will relate to the evaluation and assessment of local plans and regional strategies. If the Minister of the day agrees with a recommendation put forward by the regulator, the regulator can issue instructions to the relevant local authority on the steps that should be taken regarding the revision of its planning strategy. Equally important, if the Minister disagrees with the regulator's recommendation, the Minister must lay the reasons before the Houses of the Oireachtas and place them on the Department's website, which will ensure greater transparency and trust.

I am very pleased to see that the Minister is advancing much wider reforms down the line on a range of planning initiatives. For example, the main provisions of the planning and development (No. 1) Bill will include the revision of the Part V arrangements on social and affordable housing, retrospective application of reduced development contribution charges and the introduction of a vacant site levy. These important strategies highlight the Government's commitment to policy development and organisational reforms regarding planning. It is hoped that these reforms and improvements will return our planning system to what it should have always been, namely, a system focused on the interests of sustainable communities under which people can, once again, have faith and trust in the planning process and the stakeholders involved. The Mahon report will do much for planning and out of much bad will come much good.

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