Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Talk of Fine Gael-Fianna Fáil coalition is nonsense. There is no need for such a coalition when Fine Gael and Labour become day by day more Fianna Fáil than Fianna Fáil itself. Despite the lofty rhetoric of reform, the depressing truth is that it is business as usual. Gabhaim buíochas le mo chompánaigh as ucht an ábhar tábhachtach seo a chur os ár gcomhair.

It seems from the outset of taking up office that neither Fine Gael or the Labour Party had any real intention of changing the existing political culture in the State. In 2012, Labour and Fine Gael Ministers lined up to peddle the lie that the former Minister for the Environment, John Gormley, had not lifted a finger to progress independent inquiries into planning in a number of local authorities. The truth is that the former Green Party Minister had left Phil Hogan an extensive dossier which was prepared by planning officials in the Department following an internal review of complaints, a series of reports from the managers in each of the local authorities, terms of reference for a panel of planning consultants to carry out independent reviews of six local authorities, including my own in County Meath, and a completed tender process to select that panel of consultants. Letters of appointment were ready to be issued to members of the panel. A great deal of work was done on this issue right up to the drafting of letters of appointment of a panel to carry out the work. Fast forward three years and we have yet to see this important work carried out and are listening to the same nonsense.

Last night, the Minister claimed the Government had ensured substantial compliance with the recommendations of the Mahon report, but this is simply not true. The general scheme for the proposed planning legislation is just that, a scheme. In the unlikely event that the legislation is introduced before the election, it will only deal with one of the Mahon report's recommendations. Even the planning regulator proposal is a watered-down version of what it should have been. He or she will be appointed by the Minister who, in turn, will be under no obligation to pay a blind bit of notice to the office. The Mahon report recommended the establishment of an independent regulator but the Government has set its face against that for its own particular reasons. Of the ten recommendations in the report, the Government did not accept that members of the National Transport Authority be appointed by an independent appointments board. The Government claims other recommendations are being considered or, in the case of the regulator, being legislated for, but to most observers it does not appear that its proposal complies with the recommendation for an independent regulator. Indeed, the three recommendations that have been implemented - making statutory provision for the national spatial plan, increasing transparency and documenting regional planning guidelines - were implemented before the tribunal reported and cannot, therefore, be claimed by the Government as a response to the Mahon report. The fact that such a costly and lengthy tribunal has not been fully complied with regarding its recommendations flies in the face of the Government's promise to act swiftly and decisively to clean up the planning process.

I accept that improvements have been made with regard to the worst aspects of the rottenness and cancer at the heart of the process years ago as described by Mahon.

However, there still seems to me to be a relationship between big money and influence in this State. Some might claim that there is a continued influence of one of the star turns of Moriarty. The only certain way to ensure the necessary vigilance is in place and to ensure we do not return to the days of brown envelopes being passed in bars to local councillors and planners is to establish a fully independent planning regulator. If we do not have that type of enforcement, we cannot be guaranteed that these issues, which have disastrous effects on all of society, will be resolved.

The question is whether this Government will get involved in fully independent anything. We see, right across the process, that the Government seems to want investigations to be carried out by organisations that are not fully independent. I urge the Minister of State to make the necessary change and ensure we have full independence.

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