Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour) | Oireachtas source

While we would all like to see the planning process sped up for large developments in order to increase supply, the method being chosen takes out the local democratic layer, though the councillors do not have a direct role, by going straight to An Bord Pleanála with these large developments.

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A speeding up of the process could have been achieved in a different way that does not take out that layer. The Irish Planning Institute has also said this should not be done because it is a fundamental change. It means that the opportunities to appeal and for the local voices to be heard locally are simply not there. The points I make have been made before and on Second Stage debate. It was the substantive issue when the Bill was first published as we did not have all the amendments that were discussed earlier. It could have been achieved by putting in place better timelines at local level. Obviously there are timelines already but they could be more useful and one of the timelines could be an appropriate timeline for the pre-planning phase. Reorganising the structures at local level could also help to speed up the process where different sections, including the environment section, of the local authority are involved in advising on pre-planning. The sections need not have separate meetings for each section but have one meeting and all the relevant staff would be present. Some of the timelines that are proposed for the process at An Bord Pleanála level could have been put in at local level to shorten the period of time allocated for pre-planning. This is the phase that can cause most of the delay.

There is also a period in which additional information is sought from the applicant and this can take up to six months. Clearly this is one of the areas where a long time affects many applications. Members have been given a costing for the extra staff proposed for the unit in An Bord Pleanála. I believe that putting those staff in to the local authorities would be more effective and more transparent. People at local level could see their local planners and experts actually dealing with applications. If the staff is working behind the relatively closed doors of An Bord Pleanála then people do not have a sense that things are being done in a fair and transparent way. I would much prefer to see the resources put in to local authorities to deal with the issues that arise.

The Labour Party will not be supporting this section of the Bill and we do not agree with the process going directly to An Bord Pleanála for developments of 100 units or more.

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