Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)

The amendment puts me in a rather peculiar position as a Minister. The Opposition is proposing that the Minister should be given more power, in effect, but I am not prepared to agree to that. The Senator is proposing to empower the Minister to give a direction to the board to prioritise a particular application. The general point I have been making is that we have put in place a planning system that keeps Ministers out of the decision-making process, as far as is practical. That is a good thing, generally speaking, although it is clear there have to be exceptions from time to time.

The text of this section as it stands allows the Minister to give directions to the board to prioritise a certain class, or classes, of infrastructure that is of particular importance to the State. We can all think of circumstances in which such a power would be useful. If a certain class of infrastructure is needed at a particular time, it is right that the Minister should be able to prioritise it. It would be inappropriate, however, for the Minister to have a specific power to fast-track a particular application. Such a provision would be fraught with difficulties and would give rise to public suspicion and concern about the autonomy and independence of the planning process.

The Bill is good, in general, in that it allows the Minister to determine at a certain time that a particular class of infrastructure should be prioritised if it is of pressing need. I am thinking of sewerage works, for example. It would be going too far to allow Senator Bannon's amendment to become law. I suggest the Senator withdraws the amendment.