Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin Bay North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

We have gone from J.P. McManus to Karl Marx in a single leap. While I support the other amendments, I want to speak to amendment No. 7 because we want to ensure this is not a long-lasting provision within the Act. To make reference to what has been said already, the development plan is effectively the constitution of the city or county in which one lives. There is often an underappreciation on the part of the citizens of that city or county of how significant it is. The Minister will know that one of the few functions of real power a councillor has is to rezone land. The development plan is the overarching plan for a city, within which it is very difficult to get a planning application, or it is what planners in each individual county or city will refer to when granting planning permission.

I did not intend to make a political point but I will make one anyway. If we go back through the history of the State to when there were tribunals of inquiry into the grubby dealings of backhanders and brown envelopes and all the rest of it, at the heart of that whole dynamic was the development plan of the city or county in question. My party was never involved in such dealings but that was what broke an awful lot of people's confidence in the political system because councillors were taking bribes to vote in a particular way in order to rezone land. I know the Minister agrees with me on my next point. The Act relating to strategic housing developments has taken much of this planning out of the councils' remit. Any development of more than 100 units goes straight to An Bord Pleanála and it does not have to adhere as strictly to the development plan. The Minister and others mentioned judicial reviews. Often the only recourse communities have is to go to the High Court to seek a judicial review, if they have the money. Not every community has the money or the means to go to the High Court and seek a judicial review on the basis of a decision made by An Bord Pleanála, unless it has a very high chance of success. The repercussions for a community or someone's own pocket are huge if that review does not go well. I have been involved in two such reviews and both of them were relatively successful.

My point is about the sanctity of the development plan. All citizens must understand how incredibly important it is. It is also about that essential democratic link which so often happens at council level. The Minister knows this as he has served on a county council himself. So many powers are vested in the executives. The executives have so much power and councillors often complain about the lack of powers they have. There is an essential democratic connection between individual citizens and the councillors they elected to craft this development plan and to stand over it. That is the context in which planning permissions are given because it was the councillors elected by the people who formulated the plan and they are the only ones who get to rezone or sell land. That consultation, knowledge and power, and the empowerment of the public to know that, is absolutely essential.

We cannot demand of any council official, council employee or council worker to put his or her health or life at risk during a pandemic in order to do what has always been done. We accept that. However, there must be an understanding within the Act that this is an emergency measure that will come to an end and that the Minister will do that by order. There must be a given date after which this practice of Zoom meetings and so on will no longer be expected. We have to absolutely accept the essential connectivity of democratically elected councillors and the sacred trust they have from the people in crafting something that is based on that trust and not on an envelope of money they may have gotten in a pub. That has happened in the past and powers have been stripped from councillors and elected officials because of that practice but this is an essential function of theirs. The importance of the development plan and its process has to be something every single citizen understands inasmuch as they possibly can.

I acknowledge that the Minister is against the Planning and Development (Housing) and Residential Tenancies Act 2016 and wants to see the back of it. When legislation like that, which overrides the development plan, comes in we have to try to explain to elected councillors at public meetings that because a development has over 100 units it does not go to the council or the planners who know the dynamics of the area and who have to adhere to the development plan. It goes to An Bord Pleanála, which is an independent planning board and the only recourse people have if they want to do something about it is to take a High Court case. We all represent areas with planners and legal people living in them who do these things and have this expertise. If someone lives in an area of disadvantage, a developer can come in and override the process by sticking in a planning application for over 100 units, which goes straight to An Bord Pleanála. If An Bord Pleanála gives permission, the only recourse the community has is to go to the High Court. It must have the money to do that and that is the democratic deficit within this. One needs the money to go the High Court and if people do not have it they are not going to get anywhere. That has always been my major objection to the Act relating to strategic housing developments, because it meant communities were locked out of their say and their proper representation at the planning stage.

Without elongating my speech as others have, and without getting down and dirty on the rights or otherwise of tax exiles, who we would rather just paid their taxes and helped us all get through this pandemic rather than picking and choosing their own pet projects in the places they are from-----

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