Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The Minister has not answered the question as to why the national planning framework should not be subject to the democratic decision of the elected representatives of the people. The Minister has said he will consult. He has said the Government will invite opinions and allow people to say what they think but it will be able to completely ignore that. The Government is not going to subject the final document, which is the policy framework, to the democratic representatives of the people to make a decision. The Minister of the day can decide to ignore whatever he or she has heard or whatever input there has been. I do not see how that is acceptable. As I said earlier, democracy is not an optional extra when it comes to the planning of what we in this country are going to do with a framework that affects everything. It affects housing, water, sanitation, waste management, energy, the economy, housing, biodiversity and climate. It affects absolutely everything. This framework is setting out a plan for the country. We do not just want a cursory exercise whereby we are allowed to give our opinions and the Government can choose to ignore them. The Government needs to put the document to a democratic vote so that there is democratic accountability. Otherwise, we undermine the whole basis and point of planning and we potentially discredit the whole planning and development system, which has discredited itself quite often over recent decades. If we do this, more than running a risk, we run a likelihood of perpetuating a discrediting of the planning and development system.

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