Paul Lawless (Mayo, Aontú)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this matter. I welcome this amendment in relation to variations of the local development plan. It is a practical step and it shows a level of flexibility regarding planning, which has become increasingly inflexible. While we are discussing this, I ask the Minister to consider allowing local councillors and local authorities more autonomy and more responsibility in relation to development plans and the direction of the areas. Councillors stand for election and are elected by local communities to represent them and provide a vision for their area. Increasingly, the entire local development plan is laden down with rules and bureaucracy and is actually overseen by the Office of the Planning Regulator, OPR. I believe this is wrong and is actually stifling development in some areas. There is a housing development on the Killala Road in Ballina that was not allowed to proceed as a result of the housing, or population, ceiling that was built into the local development plan. This development plan and the ceiling were dictated by the OPR. If we were allowed more subsidiarity in relation to this, I think we would not have had that problem in Mayo. I ask the Minister to consider allowing councillors and local authorities more power in relation to development plans.

See this speech in context