Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will speak about the amendments. When Deputy Matthews was not present earlier, a number of us highlighted the very positive role he played in the stewardship of this Bill on Committee Stage, when I believe we did very good work. I absolutely support him in welcoming the amendment to the definition of "transport". However, there is a difficulty. Amendments in this group refer to section 25, which, as Deputy Matthews knows, allows a Minister to make unilateral changes to planning law through national planning policy statements and guidelines without any requirement for a debate or vote on the floor in the Oireachtas. It is really good that there is a definition of "transport" that is much more inclusive and that incorporates active transport, but if there is a change of Government and nobody in that Government is interested in making progress in this regard, the definition will lie in the text on the page. We have actually not dealt with the most fundamental aspects of this Bill, which will cause so many problems.

The transitional mechanisms in amendment No. 39 and others in the group once again highlight the fundamental flaw at the heart of the planning sections of the Bill. We have had discussions on the changes to judicial review. Rightly, many of us here criticised the proposed change to the definition of "gas infrastructure" to include LNG, but if we do not address one of the most fundamental problems with this Bill, which is the absence of democratic legitimacy in respect of national planning policy statements, we will reopen a cascading volume of conflicts in our planning system. That will lead to an increased number of conflicts within our planning authorities and ultimately our courts. I have said previously, and will keep saying for as long as we have time to talk about this Bill, that it will lead to enormous delays, including delays affecting much of the transport infrastructure that Deputy Matthews rightly advocated during his time in this House.

I absolutely support colleagues on the point that we are only on the third group of amendments. There is no question but that the amendments before us are important, and that I respect all Members, but we will not get to the amendments on LNG. Equally crucially, we will not get all the additional amendments concerning Part 9. Deputy Matthews raised issues of very considerable concern with the Minister and his party.

The crazy thing is that, very shortly after the passage of this Bill, there will be an election. We do not know whether it will be later this year or next year. A new government will be formed. I wish to put on record, as the lead Opposition spokesperson on housing and planning, that if my party is in the next government, the majority of this Bill, including sections 9 and 25, will not be enacted. Not only will these sections not be enacted, we will remove them from the Statute Book as they would cause so much damage to our planning system and so much delay to much-needed infrastructure, housing and renewable energy development. If we have the chance in the term of the next government, we will undo the damage that the Minister, Darragh O'Brien, and his party colleagues, supported by Fine Gael and, unfortunately, the Green Party will have wreaked on our planning system. This is a very bad day for planning in Ireland.

It is a very bad day for housing, development and renewable energy, but this battle is not over. Come the other side of the general election, all of these issues will become live again, no matter who forms the next Government.

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