James O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge the presence of Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan, for whom this matter is of huge importance. I am sure he will also raise it in his own right.

I would like to discuss the significant and troubling work that the Office of the Planning Regulator, OPR, has been undertaking over the past 18 months in respect of the ongoing development plans of local authorities in Ireland. I want to raise this matter because in today's society we are living in an era of independent State agencies, which, though merits were hugely attributed to their creation, are stripping the State of the democratic vehicles that we should be relying upon. One of the agencies that I feel is guilty in this regard is the OPR. This is with regard to a number of key decisions the regulator has taken around county development plans within my county. There have been huge inadequate inadequacies in the decisions that have been taken on the county development plan.

I will give one key example of one town in my constituency. Fermoy is reliant on the M8 motorway between Cork and Dublin for its future growth, the provision of new jobs, and ensuring the town has a viable economic future for the development of industry within its own area. The OPR has been interfering with Cork County Council and members of the local authority in their desire to see that lands already zoned and that are serviced provide all of the infrastructure required for industry in that location and stripping them of their zoning for industrial use. I believe this is absolutely and utterly appalling.

We need to make a decision in this country about who runs it. We are seeing red tape, and now green tape, added to the decision-making process around what is zoned and what is not. Quite frankly, it is insulting to members of local authorities and to democratically elected members of this Dáil that we continue to see such gross interference in county development plans of local authorities across the country. If we keep going in this direction it will come to the point where zoning as an issue will not be the responsibility of councillors any more. I have a major problem with this. I want to know what the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage thinks but, unfortunately, he is not present this morning to address what is a crucial issue for members of local authorities.

His Department has responsibility for local government for a reason. The actions of the agency under that Department's auspices show that it is not behaving in a manner that reflects this responsibility. It urgently needs to be dealt with now. For towns throughout the country, having an office of civil servants based in Dublin making decisions about what is in the best interest for locations such as Carrigtwohill and Fermoy, and for local authority areas across the country, is profoundly inappropriate. Those decisions should, by right, be made at a local level. Deputy O'Sullivan and myself have a serious issue with that. I would like to hear what the Department has to say in response.

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