Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

With regard to objective evidence and where the balance is struck between the Minister or the regulator, there is the supposition that it will be the same Minister all the time but there could be a great variety of different attitudes if the ministerial route is taken, as opposed to a regulator, which would create a consistency. That is absolutely required. The whole point in planning is to have a degree of normality or, to put it another way, the avoidance of chaos. Currently, there are a number of local area plans in my constituency, with one in Leixlip and one in Celbridge, for example. There is much proposed phasing of development for a very large amount of housing. For example, there are 3,000 houses proposed for Leixlip, which already has 4,500 houses. It took decades for them to be put in place. In Celbridge, there are approximately 6,000 houses and there is a proposal to put in another 3,500 up to 2023. Everybody knows it is mad and not deliverable.

A Deputy spoke about people paying attention to planning legislation but they are certainly paying attention in my area because they absolutely know what they will get. They will get housing estate after housing estate, but nothing else. Essentially, the phased developments to make it happen without total chaos would not go hand in hand with that. There must be consistency not just in having a planning regulator with teeth but where a regulator can deal with matters such as the infrastructural requirements to facilitate development. That is still very much in political hands and there is a mismatch as a result.

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