Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will address amendments Nos. 2, 3, 21, 33 to 43, inclusive, 49 to 55, inclusive, 57 to 59, inclusive, 66 to 68, inclusive, and 98, as tabled by Deputies Wallace and Clare Daly. I do not propose to accept these amendments because I do not think it is appropriate to remove functions from the Minister or to transfer certain functions from the Minister to the OPR. The planning regulator will be fully independent of the Department. It will be fully responsible for the independent assessment of all local area plans, development plans and regional spatial and economic strategies. It will also be responsible for ensuring their compliance with relevant national or regional policies, or both.

In its oversight role, where the OPR finds that local authority plans or regional spatial and economic strategies are not consistent with relevant regional or national policies, it will recommend the use of ministerial powers of direction under section 31 of the Act to change those plans. Such OPR recommendations to the Minister must be published. If the Minister agrees with the OPR, the recommendation will be followed. If the Minister does not agree with the OPR and decides not to issue a direction, he or she will have to give reasons in writing for this decision and lay those reasons before the Houses of the Oireachtas. This approach was selected after careful consideration to ensure there is full public scrutiny and democratic accountability over the significant power to overturn the decisions of local councils on the forward planning and zoning of their areas. It ensures the Minister will maintain the authority to issue directions, while also providing that where he or she decides not to follow the OPR recommendations, he or she must have clear reasons for doing so and such reasons will be published and subject to scrutiny and debate in this House. I believe the Bill as drafted strikes the appropriate balance between the independence of the OPR in its evaluation and assessment role and the maintenance of democratic oversight with the Minister and the Oireachtas, which is an important tenet of this Bill.

As the Deputy has said, the existence of the planning regulator's office will not mean we will get all the right decisions. We hope we will get such decisions, just as we hope we will get the trust of the public, but it is important nevertheless to provide for parliamentary accountability. That is what we are here for. It is why Deputies and Ministers are in place. We should not always try to eliminate the role of public representatives. There is no doubt that this role was abused in the past by certain people in public office. but scrutiny has changed a lot over recent years. That is what we are here for. It is right that this Dáil is much more relevant and its scrutiny and decision-making carries much more weight. I do not see why Opposition Deputies who might be in government at some stage do not want to be able to do the jobs they will have to do as Ministers. Are they looking for excuses not to be able to do their future jobs? Is that what this is really about? I think Ministers need to be able to stand up and do their jobs when they come in here.

I remind those Deputies who do not agree with the establishment of the OPR that we have established a similar body in the case of the Irish Fiscal Council. Such bodies work very well all over Europe. They highlight issues and disagree with Ministers. The Minister, Deputy Noonan, does not always agree with the Irish Fiscal Council. In such circumstances, he has to come in here and debate the issues at stake.

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