Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am not going to speak for long because there are Members present who have amendments down that need to be reached and discussed. I have been in the Dáil a relatively short time but even people who have been here much longer would expect a Bill that enters on First Stage and is debated on Second Stage would bear a general similarity to the Bill that emerges at the end of the process with respect to content and intent. That cannot be said about this legislation. To paraphrase Deputy Cian O'Callaghan, one Bill went in but nearly seven came out, with the stuff that has been added late.

The Minister of State indicated that this was flagged in April and late May. What was not flagged to anybody at the committee, spokespersons or the House was that we would have an avalanche of 48 pages of amendments dropped on the last voting day of this session. That is not to say, unfortunately, that this is unexpected from this Government because this is becoming how business is done. However, planning and development has a long, sorry and negatively impactful history on communities all over our country but also on faith and trust in politics, which have been at a low for a number of decades now. If we get to the root of that, it is due to bad planning and bad development.

That is why when it comes to scrutiny and debating legislation, we need to have time and space. That applies especially for smaller groups and parties when we are dealing with complex areas of planning. It is not just that it goes to the spokesperson who will have one staff member. A large amount of resources are needed to engage with the various stakeholders, NGOs, legal experts and planning experts. We in Opposition owe it to the people to hold the Government to account and we need to be able to do that work. The Government is denying us the ability to do that through the way it is bringing legislation to this House.

Take a number of the concerns we have. On the whole, the short-term lettings measures appear to be okay but we still have not debated them. Research carried out by our housing spokesperson, Senator Moynihan, indicated the problems with short-term lets are happening outside the rent pressure zones and throughout the country, including all along the western seaboard, but the Bill only refers to the RPZs. That issue would have been discussed in the committee or in pre-legislative scrutiny if the Government had been honest and played with a straight bat on Bill.

We can look at the initial reaction of various groups. We have An Taisce and the Environmental Pillar raising concerns about this. Who is welcoming it? That it is the Construction Industry Federation, CIF, welcoming it is what tells the tale. This is what gets all our backs up, raises our antennae and has us asking what is happening here and what stroke is being pulled. The Minister of State came in here and told us this is technical. I am sorry but no Bill of 18 pages should come out the other side following technical amendments alone at 48 pages. Those are not technical amendments but wholesale change of legislation on planning and development at the eleventh hour that could impact short-term lets, our offshore and onshore, maritime area planning and the whole shebang. It is an awful way to do legislation and politics. To bring forward in this way legislation on an issue with such a troubling history in such a troubling time, given what is going on in An Bord Pleanála, means any faith we have in this Government to deal with planning and development is absolutely obliterated.

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