Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing time with Deputy James O'Connor. I am not sure if he is up in the balcony; I hear he is. I welcome this Bill and commend the Minister and his officials on what are practical approaches to some of the other challenges presented by Covid-19. Before Deputy Duncan Smith leaves, I was interested in his outlining of the Fingal process in terms of the relative lack of engagement, even online. That is reflective of our own position. The Mayo process is not as far advanced as Fingal but our councillors, who worked incredibly hard on it, feel there was not the same level of engagement. Certainly they could not feel it. Online is not the same as the ability to go to your local community hall or hotel to see it.

As everybody has said, the development plan is the crucial document. Councillors give a huge amount to it. Even in the best of times, they do not have the best resources available to them compared to what officials and other people have. In this process, it has been much more difficult. They deserve commendation and if there is more time needed for a public buy-in to the development plan, I welcome this.

However, the biggest threat to development plans and the freedom of councillors to express the will of those who elect them is not contained within this legislation. It is contained within the national planning framework in terms of the restrictions that puts on development plans and the ability of councillors to represent those of their communities and to develop communities in the way people who live in them would like to see them developed but that is for a different day.

I have lobbied the Minister hard on planning extensions and I welcome them. There has been concern from some Deputies that it is wide but it is not. There is quite a detailed part in section 7 of the Bill. It is a process. It is not a blanket exemption, to quote one Deputy. There is a process. I saw the Minister giving hand signals in terms of the level of qualification or what defines completed works and he kept going higher and higher. It is quite a detailed process and I have no doubt that can be tightened up. It involves an application to the local authority. It is not a blanket exemption.

I am intrigued as to how the figure of two years was landed at. Can some discretion be given there? Some projects have been compromised by Covid-19, not only in terms of the stalling of construction, but international supply chains and logistics and the ability of international experts to get to Ireland to look at sites with regard to the installation of specialised equipment which cannot be got here. Those are the reasons the Minister has put in this change and I would like to see that.

The environmental screening is important as well. It is incredibly important that is brought up to date to build confidence in this measure. We need to do much more - the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, has made a timely entrance - especially in terms of how parks and wildlife engages around environmental screening. I am involved in a community-led development at home around a walking trail where the full extent of what the National Parks and Wildlife Service, NPWS, demanded of them was only recently given, after two years of trying to engage with it. We are lucky to have a super NPWS team in County Mayo, but something fell through the cracks. Community organisations are a long way down in a community-led project which would enhance the community but this one suddenly came to a shuddering halt in the past few weeks, because of a lack of communication. That is something we can all work on together.

I acknowledge there are concerns about the hoarding of sites. The controls under section 7 will prevent against that. If that needs to be even further enhanced and if other Ministers need to get involved in terms of taxation, that should be allowed. I welcome this Bill and commend the Minister and his officials on the work they put into it.

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