Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I echo the point made by the Irish Council for Civil Liberties that it is staggering that 13 items of legislation are being rushed through the Houses before Christmas, six of which will have normal parliamentary processes truncated through merging of Stages. There is no regard for proper parliamentary process and it is extremely disrespectful to the democracy we supposedly live in. Planning legislation is complex and we must be allowed sufficient time to scrutinise such legislation thoroughly.

There is a significant lack of public trust in An Bord Pleanála stemming from the conduct of members of the board, bad management and the fact the courts have, time and time again, found the board has not applied the law correctly. That is why there are judicial reviews. A judicial review is on a point of law and if the law is not being enacted or followed properly by that body, that is why a review takes place. It is obvious the board is not complying with the law. That is why the reviews happen.

The rushing through of legislation in this way serves to further destroy public trust in An Bord Pleanála. Of all the legislation pushed through this week, the Planning and Development and Foreshore (Amendment) Bill would have particularly benefited from more thorough scrutiny but it is clear that public interest is at the heart neither of the Bill nor of the Government. It is important that the public has confidence and trust in our planning system and the fact the Minister does not recognise that is incredibly concerning. An independent planning system is an important part of a functioning democracy. This is threatened by the Bill, which proposes to provide the Minister with unchecked powers over changes to the size of the board and its appointment of ordinary members. Section 3 allows the Minister to appoint additional ordinary members without placing a limitation on how many, which removes the existing limits on the proportion of the board that can be appointed by the Minister. While I understand the need to increase the number of board members, it would be a step backwards to remove those limits on the Minister, who could potentially abuse this power. Why have board members not been appointed in recent years? If they had been, we would not have ended up in this situation. I do not say the current Minister may do this but we cannot be sure what future Ministers will do. That is the problem. The legislation needs to be future-proofed and should protect against any possible misuse of power.

It is also a backward step that section 6 does not include a guarantee of a board member with environmental expertise, which was guaranteed in the previous legislation. We are seeing a massive shift away from independent structures and directly towards the Minister. This is deeply concerning. It seems this Bill is being rushed through to provide a short-term quick fix to address the current backlog. It does not even bother to include important limitations and guarantees set by the previous legislation. It is far removed from the robust planning legislation we desperately need. I urge the Government that if such important legislation is to be treated as emergency legislation, it is imperative it at least include a sunset clause.

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