Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Unfortunately, yes. I welcome the Minister of State and his official, who I know well. The national planning framework, NPF, and capital plan, as outlined to such ridiculous fanfare last week, is a fraud. They have no basis in law - I say "they" because there are two parts to it - and contain nothing more than planning aspirations and a wish list of capital projects. Frankly, what the Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, articulated in the Dáil yesterday simply is not true. To be blunt, these documents have no basis in law and cannot be put on a statutory footing without a vote on the national planning framework as currently drafted. If that does not take place, it will not be legal. I say this as the Minister who sponsored the original Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2016, brought it to Government and had it passed through the Cabinet in the first place. Ironically, I spent more time working on this plan than either the current Minister or his predecessor because they had such short durations in the Custom House. The Bill clearly states that the Government "shall submit the draft of the revised or new National Planning Framework, together with the Environmental Report and Appropriate Assessment Report for the approval of each House of the Oireachtas before it is published". It is very clear.

I have been listening to Ministers repeatedly try to squirm out of this fact. They have failed miserably to do so. Consequently, this NPF and capital plan has no legal basis and there is no underpinning legislative basis that stands up about which they can be 100% sure.

The Minister of State, Deputy English, knows I have good time for him personally but I believe what he is doing is the most reckless action I have seen in this House since the bank bailout in 2008. If the Government pursues this strategy, I predict with great confidence, along with my colleagues, that the plans will collapse under legal attack and the names of the Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, and this Government will be all over it. I am not alone in that view.

The Taoiseach said the Government did not need a vote because the Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill was not passed, but he did not tell us the legislation on which the Government was relying. That is to leave aside the moral argument that this Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill was, without a shadow of a doubt, and the Minister of State knows this, the actual underpinning legislation.

We then had Ministers waffling on about how there had already been a vote on the plan. It was embarrassing to watch them. There was not a vote on it. That is just a lie. There were statements on the old plan and then votes on the legislation underpinning the plan, which has not even been concluded yet. Where was the vote on the plan? There was not one.

We then had the unsightly scene, and I felt sorry for the Minister of State, Deputy English, last week where he had to filibuster - let us call a spade a spade-----

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