Brian Leddin (Limerick City, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The Ceann Comhairle got there before me to defend the honour of the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, as a proud Kilkenny man. I echo Deputy Michael Healy-Rae in commending councillors up and down the country for the work they have been doing in the last year around development plans. My own colleagues in Limerick, Councillors Sasha Novak and Sean Hartigan, have done really quite extraordinary work in the last few months, poring over thousands of pages of documents. I commend also the officials in Limerick City and County Council who have done really stellar work to get us to this point.

Proper planning is important. It impacts on how our society is shaped and our quality of life in our local communities, while also ensuring our environment and natural and built heritage is protected. Development plans are important. We must celebrate the fact that, although the pandemic caused delays, we managed to continue our development planning processes and effectively gave voice to so many citizens who wanted to have a say about what their vision for their local communities was and how it could be realised. We have learned a lot about the potential of online communications over the last year and a half. It has quite simply transformed and in some ways sustained our lives. It will never replace face to face encounters but for the public sector, it has sped up the transition to a digital-first approach to public consultation. There is a strength in diversity and we must hear all voices in our communities. Our efforts to make it easier for people to make submissions electronically expands the level of community engagement that can be achieved. We must take care that people of all ages, genders and abilities are included in the process and ensure those who cannot or do not want to engage electronically are facilitated through more traditional processes like written submissions and face to face meetings. Our public libraries, which have continued to play an invaluable public service role in local communities during the pandemic, have an opportunity to facilitate this.

I welcome this planning and development Bill. It offers an appropriate time extension to both the development plan process and to planning permissions while requiring that screening and environmental assessment takes place where a delay would result in impact on the environment. The limited provision for extensions to those processes are prudent given the challenges posed by this pandemic and the vital importance of our development plans and the process involved in their drafting. I welcome the emphasis on environmental assessment in this Bill and that delays to development plans and planning permissions are only granted after appropriate environmental screening and assessment. In my county of Limerick, the draft development plan was published this week. There was a very encouraging and enthusiastic level of community engagement with the issues paper in the pre-draft stage of the public consultation and this engagement is invaluable. People understand the need for proper planning for the future. We are getting better at enforcing our obligations to future generations and we must continue to improve. Indeed, the onus is very much on us.

Finally, I welcome the significant legislative efforts of the Minister and his Department in this term. My colleague, Deputy Matthews, who has just spoken, has been working diligently with his colleagues on the housing committee dealing with a significant volume of legislation coming from the Minister's Department. I look forward to further engagement with the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, and the Ministers of State, Deputies Noonan and Peter Burke, in the months ahead on the ambitious programme of work they have set out for themselves.

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