Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

The Minister said he is in favour of an open, competitive and transparent system to appoint the board. That is great. However, in the next breath he said he will vote against an amendment which would make sure he has to bring forward a proposal for the establishment of an open, competitive and transparent system. The Minister is against an amendment which will ensure he does the thing he said he would do in any case. Forgive us if we are, therefore, a little bit doubtful as to his intentions. Forgive us if we look at the record of Fianna Fáil on planning, about which we would be a little bit doubtful. Forgive us if we are a little bit dubious about the process of the removal of An Bord Pleanála as an independent body, free of Government and ministerial control and interference and there being instead, ultimately, ministerial decision about who is appointed.

There is obviously a context to this in terms of the Bill that is coming down the line after Christmas. In reality this is a very minimal amendment. It is limited. It states the Minister shall come back with a proposal about what the open and transparent process he is supposedly in favour of is going to look like so that we can democratically discuss it, as opposed to giving a carte blancheto the Minister.

The consequences of this are quite significant. This will be an enormously powerful board. The consequences of the decisions it makes are immense for communities and people who are looking for housing. I agree that the current system is not appropriate, but the new body needs to be genuinely independent. The real danger is that it is not independent in any way whatsoever and the Minister can appoint who he wants. That could be done in a skilful way, whereby the Minister supposedly has an open and transparent process which is not really transparent and the Minister can appoint who he wants. We could have an open and transparent process. The best way to reassure anybody who has doubts about these things and might not accept the sincerity of Fianna Fáil on this issue is for the Minister to accept the amendment and say he will bring forward the proposals and allow the Dáil to debate them.

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