Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

When will Fianna Fáil learn the lessons of the crash that its policies led to more than a decade ago? I am really struggling to understand what the Government is at. The big innovation from the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage when it comes to restoring public confidence in An Bord Pleanála is to revert to a discredited system of political appointments that was done away with almost 40 years ago. I do not think you could make this stuff up, that we are going back in time on this. I would not have thought Fianna Fáil needed reminding of why we need to remove any prospect of political interference from the planning system, or perhaps its members have forgotten about the tribunal reports.

If the Government's so-called reform of an Bord Pleanála goes ahead today, we will see the last remaining shred of its credibility and independence going up in flames. Most of the members of the board of An Bord Pleanála will be handpicked by the Minister, entirely at his discretion in a blatant and egregious political power grab. Meanwhile, as the Minister turns An Bord Pleanála into his political plaything, he is determined to remove the democratic oversight role the public plays in the planning process. Early in the new year the Minister will bring forward legislation that will make it as difficult and expensive as possible for members of the public to appeal planning decisions. The Government will stuff An Bord Pleanála with political appointments and then make it impossible for the legality of those decisions to be challenged in the courts.

There is no disguising how dangerous and deluded this is. We know from very recent history what happens when politicians say they will speed up the planning process. It grinds to a halt. Fine Gael, with the support of Fianna Fáil, introduced strategic housing development legislation in 2017, changing the entire purpose of An Bord Pleanála from a planning appeals body to a forum where first instance decisions were made. The only avenue of appeal then became the High Court. Then, Fine Gael Ministers had the audacity to complain that the number of judicial reviews went up. What did they think was going to happen?

Now, to solve a problem of their own creation, Fianna Fáil is ably assisting Fine Gael - this time in government - by taking a sledgehammer to go to An Bord Pleanála's last remaining vestiges of credibility. If the Green Party stands over this, it will be signing its own political death warrant. The awful thing is its members know this is wrong. At what point will Fianna Fáil and its Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage learn the lessons of history? While the Social Democrats are in favour of progressive reforms to our planning system, we need a planning process that is entirely independent of political interference, and which is open to scrutiny and legitimate challenge by the public. It is not too late to pull these deeply misguided and damaging plans that will destroy what remains of the credibility of An Bord Pleanála. I only have one question for the Minister. Will he do that?

See this speech in context