Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I have gone back through all the relevant documentation and read what I brought forward in December 2015 and it is absolutely definite, in my view, what the Government's decision was then. As the former Minister with responsibility in this area, I have reread the documents that were put forward at the time and it is very clear that this plan needs a vote of the Dáil and Seanad. I have checked this with my Labour colleagues who sat at the Cabinet table with me and they are of the same opinion. The reason the provision for a vote was included is that, following discussions with officials, it was felt the framework had to be a million miles away from the previous plan, namely, the much-maligned national spatial strategy. That plan was correctly perceived as a great example of stroke politics, with something for every person at the Cabinet table. Therefore, the intention at the time was, through the new framework, to ensure this would never happen again and ensure complete Oireachtas buy-in, hence my ensuring there would be a vote on the final framework.

My successor, the current Tánaiste, Deputy Coveney, when speaking on Second Stage of the Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2016 on 28 September 2016, endorsed what I had brought to Government and had been agreed ten months earlier. He said, "the framework shall be subject to the provisions of relevant EU environmental directives; and that the Government shall submit the draft of a revised or new framework for the approval of the Oireachtas before it is published and shall have regard to any resolution of the Oireachtas in the finalisation of the NPF". What part of this is not clear? In fairness to the Tánaiste, on 7 May 2016 he invited all Deputies and Senators to the audiovisual room for a briefing on the national planning framework, which was to take place on 15 June of that year. In an email that came from his private secretary, he stated that, as provided for under the provisions of the Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2016, and in response to the recommendations of the Mahon tribunal, the final framework document would be subject to the approval of Dáil Éireann in view of the fact that it would shape regional, spatial and economic strategies, county development plans and the planning decisions of local authorities and An Bord Pleanála. I could not agree more. In his PowerPoint presentation on 9 November 2016, he committed to same again. It is, therefore, crystal clear that there was a requirement, which I brought forward in the legislation, to ensure there would be a vote in this House and in Seanad Éireann on the national planning framework.

It seems the Tánaiste got this, although he can no longer remember it, but then the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, came along and did not get it. He seemed motivated to forget about this commitment once he entered the Custom House. Why is that the case? The answer, I believe, is quite simple. This Government could not guarantee that it would win the subsequent vote on the national planning framework, it had forgotten to include it in the confidence and supply agreement with Fianna Fáil and it would hardly countenance losing such a critical vote and the consequent golden public relations opportunity which has now been seized with such fanfare. This is especially the case now that the Government has begun linking the new framework with the capital spending plan. There was no intention to link the national planning framework and the capital plan originally. The Taoiseach inadvertently admitted this last week. The capital plan was meant to be launched some time ago, he said - over six months ago. However, it was so far behind schedule that the Government now thought it would look politically mature to put it all together and pretend this was planned all along. It was not. By linking the two plans, there was no way, this Government felt, in all the confusion it would create, that the Opposition could come into the House and vote against €115 billion in capital spending. It would be political suicide to do so. The Taoiseach again let the cat out of the bag last week when he said the Opposition was terrified of the then imminent announcement of the plans. What is terrifying is for the Government, particularly the Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, to stake his political future on doing something that I, and all my colleagues who sat beside me at the Cabinet table, believe is legally unsound. All of us in the Labour Party have the same view.

Trust me, this will come back to haunt the Government and the Minister. There is absolutely no 100% sound statutory legislation underpinning this national framework. I do not say this lightly but I do want it recorded in this forum that that is my prediction. Some parts of the planning code require planning authorities to have regard to the National Spatial Strategy 2002-2020, published by the then Government on 28 November 2002. Other provisions require the authorities to have regard to the national spatial strategy "or any document published by the Government which amends or replaces that Strategy". The Government, in its publication, did not even link this framework to that spatial strategy. The Government did not say it repealed or abrogated it or that it was a new version of it, so it is not a replacement.

Eventually the Government will have to try to put this on a statutory footing somehow. The only way to do so is to subject it to votes and amendments on the floors of the Dáil and Seanad. I predict that this will have to happen. If the Government tries to push this through and bluff it, the Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill is not the vehicle by means of which it can get a vote to justify the statutory process that is needed. I ask the House to imagine the scenario in which the Government will now be left. It will have to come before this House and ask us to pass the national planning framework and we will all look to change it in some way. I predict that the Government will have to do this because otherwise the plan is simply a vision of aspirations and thoughts. To look on the bright side, after the Government is forced to debate the framework in the Dáil - and it will be amended - it will at least have the fanfare of launching it all over again. Anyone worth his or her salt who walks into court to challenge this on the basis, say, of the ridiculous caps that are to be put on planning in different local authority areas will win. He or she will be able to quote one third of the members of the Government and what their views of it were at the time. He or she will be able to quote what I am saying now and the documents to which I have referred.

Aside from the obvious issue of not having any statutory footing, there are two other reasons why I believe this plan is legally flawed due to the process adopted. The legislation commits the Government to submit an environmental report as part of the approval to the Oireachtas. This has not been done. A strategic environmental assessment, SEA, scoping exercise is not sufficient. The Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, in its submission in respect of this plan said this had to be on a statutory footing. I suggest that the officials and the Minister read the submission. There is also the most basic and obvious reason why this will fall legally. As far as public consultation is concerned, there has been no truthful engagement in respect of this plan during the final leg of its journey. The final national planning framework is a very different version to the one that was released a few months ago. The fundamentals of it have changed. For example, the tiered nature of picking some towns over others for special status is completely new. What have the people of Tullamore, Mullingar or Nenagh to say about this? We will never know because they have not been consulted.

The Minister and the Government are in big trouble on the national planning framework, and I do not say this lightly. The capital plan is tied with the framework so, by bringing them together, the Government has jeopardised both.

I believe they should be together but only after the legislation is passed and the national planning framework is voted on, which was my intention when I brought forward the legislation in the first place. For perceived political advantage reasons the Government has jeopardised them both. The spatial strategy of 2002 was stroke politics, but in fairness to Fianna Fáil in typical format at least we could see it coming at us. This strategy and plan is underhand, cynical, unethical, legally unsound and wrong. I can tell the Government out straight that anyone in opposition, and particularly we in the Labour Party, will not and cannot be bound by it.

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