Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I do not sit on a committee and I would like more time to look at this. I am guided by what I have been told and what I have read. This is an absolute insult. It is blatantly against the spirit and law of the Aarhus Convention that was signed back in 2012. If we were seriously interested in improving the planning laws in Ireland, we would have properly resourced them and made them robust. We would not have put our buddies into An Bord Pleanála and then insulted people by changing the name “An Bord Pleanála” as if that had anything to do with the conflicts of interest that were not apparent to those who had conflicts of interest.

I said my contribution would be short. I will not support this legislation. It brings a focus on the utter failure to learn the importance of people being involved in the planning process, a fact which has been repeatedly stated in the courts, as I said this morning. The trinity of planning laws are the local authority, the developer and the person. There is much more I could say but I said I would be brief so I will stop.

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