Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to debate this important and long-anticipated Bill in the Chamber. We are all very conscious that the planning process has a key impact on addressing the two most major crises faced by our country today, namely the housing disaster and the climate emergency. We know we need robust and effective planning laws in order to deliver the urgently needed increased supply of housing and the necessary infrastructure to enable us to develop our renewable energy sources and meet our climate targets. We are all very conscious of that as we debate the Bill. We are very conscious that the current system is simply not working effectively to deliver on housing or climate infrastructure. We need a robust response.

I have engaged with our local representatives and councillors around the country. They tell me Ireland deserves a best-in-class planning system. We are all in agreement on that, but we need a system that can ensure the rapid scaling-up of the building of homes and installation of essential public infrastructure, especially renewable energy infrastructure.

Regrettably, there are flaws in the Bill as currently drafted. We will seek to amend it. I hope there will be sufficient time and opportunity for us to engage in that constructive process. I do not think I received a letter from the Minister on this, but I am happy to engage with him on the Bill. We are all conscious that this is a massive Bill. The Minister said it is the third largest Bill in the history of the State. I tried to think what the first two were.

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