Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

My amendment No. 6 would allow for public meetings and for online meetings and would provide for public meetings not to take place during emergency periods, such as Covid. It is essentially about good decision-making in the development plan process, which is very important. If we are to have good decision-making, we need the public to be well informed on it. I do not believe any of us could say with confidence that the public has a good understanding of development plan processes. We need to do more to ensure greater public participation in the process. We need to ensure that decision-making in that process is not developer-led and is not led by land speculation and a well informed public is key to this. Any measures towards less participation are going in the wrong direction. We need to enhance participation and knowledge in the process. I ask the Minister to address this point in his response. He has stated it relates to the early stages of the process, which it does. Is there any instance of anyone who designs good public participation processes who does not say that early engagement is key to good public participation? Everything I have ever heard from or read by people involved in these processes states that early engagement is key in public participation. Why would one seek to dilute that in this process? If there has not been sufficient attendance at meetings in the early stages of the process, the answer is to better promote these public meetings, not to scrap them.

If this measure is brought in without my amendment and if public meetings are made optional, virtually every council will drop them. There is an issue of us meeting, engaging in person and having that human interaction and then proposing a situation in which what is good enough for us is not good enough for the public in respect of the early engagement of the development plan process.

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