Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I fully support this group of amendments. In some sense, these amendments go to the very heart of this legislation and the debates and disagreements Members have had on Second Stage and Report Stage. One thing that has frustrated me since the introduction of this legislation is notwithstanding the very considerable work by the officials and the Minister and notwithstanding the disagreement I and those of us on the committee have had, almost nobody else knows about it. Here we have legislation that is attempting to put in place an institution of huge importance. It is not just the view of the people here; it is the view of the Mahon tribunal and of those of us who followed it. For a whole set of reasons such as the technical nature of the Bill and the political events taking place outside on any given day, there is no real public awareness or scrutiny of what this Bill is about to do. I said on Second Stage that we wanted to support this Bill. We will not oppose it, weak and all as it is. I would much prefer to be here supporting the kind of Bill Deputies Wallace and Clare Daly are trying to introduce.

When we had this argument on Committee Stage, the Minister, Deputy Coveney, made a very revealing remark. Since he is not present, it would be good to hear some of his words here. I will quote him so at least he can be on the record, albeit quoted by me. After we had this discussion on precisely the issue Deputies Clare Daly and Mick Wallace have outlined, he stated:

What appears to be under discussion here is who will be the appropriate body or person to make the intervention to correct a wrong. Should it be the Minister or the independent regulator?

It is absolutely the fundamental issue in the discussion we are having. The answer to the question should not rest with me or other Deputies in the Chamber; it should rest with the Mahon tribunal's recommendations. It is why the tribunal was set up. It is why it pored over all of the information it did. Its recommendations are clear in terms of where it falls on the Minister's choice between the Minister and the independent regulator.

As for its key phrases, Deputies Wallace and Daly quoted the full section of the report and I will give the example of the planning corruption in Quarryvale in my constituency. To this day, communities are still living with the negative consequences of bad and corrupt decisions at central and local government. The tribunal's recommendations stated there was an over-centralisation of power with the Minister, there were not adequate checks and balances and the ability to give directions to regional authorities and local planning authorities should be entrusted to the regulator. The answer to the question posed by the Minister, Deputy Coveney, is very simple. The Mahon tribunal wanted it not with the Minister or Department, but with an independent planning regulator with teeth. What frustrates me most about these debates is that legislation is about to be enacted - assuming Fianna Fáil votes with the Government on these amendments and mine that are attempting to achieve the same effect - and we will have a regulator that is not independent, has no powers and continues to allow the decisions to be made by the Minister rather than by the independent regulator. What does this amount to? It is an absolute betrayal of both the spirit and intention of the Mahon tribunal recommendations. There is simply no way one can say it is anything other than the very opposite of what the Mahon tribunal recommended.

I did not come here to make a Second Stage speech but it is such a fundamental part of what this debate is about that it has to be named as clearly as possible. I urge the Government to reconsider its decision to continue the over-centralisation of power with the Minister and to reconsider its decision not to introduce the checks and balances the Mahon tribunal made. If the Government will not accept the amendment proposed by Deputies Daly and Wallace or my amendments in the grouping after next, will it come back when the Bill is before the Seanad with something that is true to the Mahon tribunal? Otherwise the passing of this legislation will be an absolute waste of everybody's time in terms of this core recommendation. It is not what the officials have slaved over the legislation for. It is not what we have spent hours on either in committee or in here on Second Stage and Report Stage. On this one issue, the Government needs to rethink its unwillingness to implement the Mahon tribunal faithfully. On that basis, I fully support the recommendations.

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