Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy O’Callaghan and his colleagues, Deputy Ó Broin and others, for tabling the amendment. I will put this and the timeframe in context. I am not accepting the amendment and will tell the House why. I will also take up one of the suggestions Deputy Ó Broin made, which is something I intended to do in any event. If we look at this Bill and at what we are doing, the context as to why I will not accept this amendment is that we have to strengthen the capacity of the board itself. Everyone agrees with that. We have five board members now and have effectively a deputy chair who, with the passing of this legislation, will become the interim chairperson. That is important because currently under the legislation, a deputy chairperson cannot carry out the function of the chairperson of An Bord Pleanála. We are changing that in this legislation to ensure that, on an interim basis, that appointment is made. From within the Civil Service and public service, a very senior official, with extensive knowledge of the justice area and the planning area, will be in there to steady the ship within the board as we carry out the further reforms we want.

On the panel system, my clear view on it over the past number of years has been that it has not served the operation of the board well. It is an archaic system and if one looks at some of the nominating bodies within that system, there are questions as to whether there were some, I am not talking about all of them, which existed or operated at all.

I will not get into the detail of this but everyone is clear on the controversies which arose over the course of this year. We were already embarked on a reform agenda with An Bord Pleanála where I said I was going to change the appointment process. When those controversies arose, we had to expedite this because we simply did not have enough people in An Bord Pleanála at board level to make those decisions. We need to do that. The urgency around this is very clear and was accepted by most Members during the Second Stage debate.

The new appointment process will be much more open and transparent than the panel system. When a Minister receives a recommendation, although it is not a recommendation, through the panel system, the Minister is given a list of the people but there are no recommendations. Currently, the Minister has to make his or her mind up at that stage. There is not an open competition. We will bring forward an open competition where any member of the public can apply, if they believe they have the relevant experience or qualifications to serve on the board. I do not believe we can be any more open or transparent about an appointment process than that. That process will replace what is in my view an outdated panel nomination process. It will be a new structure to replenish the new board into the future.

This is in advance of the consolidated planning Bill but it is a change that needs to happen now. The reason the change is needed is that any of the interim appointments I make now will be for 12 months.

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