Paul Coghlan (Fine Gael)

I am glad the Minister is now bringing it before this House. One of the fundamentals in planning is to be fair, responsive, open and transparent and the Minister is making no changes in that respect. The right of people to air their views is sacrosanct. People accept the fairness and impartiality of judges within our democratic system. I have great faith in the members of the new division of the board which the Minister proposes to set up, especially its chairman, Mr. John O'Connor. I am confident the board's impartiality will be accepted. The Minister is increasing the number of members of the board to ten. As planning staff are very stretched and given the timescale involved for appeals to An Bord Pleanála, I am sure the Minister will keep this decision under review. The board will probably need more specialist staff to deal with everything that will come down the line.

I am glad individuals and groups will still have their say on these major infrastructural development applications. I also welcome the role being provided to local authority members to express their views to the board, under the proposed strategic consent process. This is important because local politicians are more aware than anyone of what is going on at a local level. I do not agree with the views of Senator Norris on this issue. We all know about the difficulties of the past, but these views will have to be given in an open forum at the council meeting and that is an important protection. However, there is a big difference between what Senator Norris raised, which nobody condones and which was largely confined to Dublin in the past, and what is happening now. Like Members of the Oireachtas, Councillors must now declare their interests.