Paudie Coffey (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State's assurance that there will be public consultation on the preparation of the regional planning guidelines as it will be essential. As Senator Burke alluded, however, the engagement with the public when the guidelines are being consulted on will be interesting. I doubt that many citizens know who it is that sits on regional authorities and formulates plans that will affect the ways communities develop. This will be the Bill's impact on the ground.

I have attended regional authority meetings. The media do not even attend those meetings. When this Bill goes through, if it will empower the regional authorities like we think it will, it is in the public interest that the media would attend regional authority meetings because it seems important decisions will now be made there. Those are merely some of the practical implications of this Bill.

I say that because I am concerned about the democratic deficit and the lack of transparency around the adoption of the regional planning guidelines. Transparency is certainly not evident at present. I would be interested to know how the Minister hopes to increase public awareness of the importance of these regional planning guidelines and their impact on the development of communities.

How often have we heard managers tell councillors that the development plan is theirs and the planners and the executive are only there to help formulate and assist in its compilation? When this Bill becomes law, my understanding is it will no longer be the councillors' development plan because the contents of all county and city development plans will be dictated by what is in the national spatial strategy and the regional planning guidelines, and by the Minister's view on policy. In turn, it will be only the members who sit on a regional authority who will have the power to amend or change that. The local councillors' say in the development of the local plan will be greatly diminished. That is the reality. I am trying to see how it could be otherwise. In effect, the councillors will just rubber-stamp what will be dictated from national policy through the regional authorities.

Visiting the Oireachtas today is a delegation from Carlow County Council's strategic policy committee on planning. This is a cross-party delegation, including councillors from the Government parties, who are very concerned with the direction in which this Bill is going. I do not know whether the Minister of State, Deputy Finneran, has met them, but I will outline some of their concerns which relate directly to the regional planning guidelines and the projections.

They state that the Government, through the national spatial strategy, determined that more balanced regional development should be a priority for the country so as to have a better spread of jobs, a better quality of life and a better place in which to live. We all agree with that.

They go on to say that the regional population targets for 2010 to 2022 were issued in January 2009 giving a low to high range in 2022 of 5,375,000 to 5,523,000. The lower figure would represent a 14.5% increase while the higher figure would mean an increase of approximately 20% over the 12-year period. They state that the higher figure more accurately represents the recorded population changes in the State.

The delegation states further that on 1 October 2009, the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Gormley, directed that the minimum population targets only should be used for the preparation of the regional planning guidelines. There must be some reasoning or rationale behind this direction. Why take the minimum? The effect of this will be to limit the population increase in the regions. For example, during the period 2010 to 2022 the south east will increase by 72,600, the midlands by 41,500 and Dublin by 207,300. This is the real impact of these regional planning guidelines and the population targets about which the Carlow County Council members and the SPC are concerned.

They state that in compliance with the national spatial strategy, the population will be diverted to the gateways, where there will be a minimum 50% increase, and the hub towns, where there will be a minimum 33% increase. They state that Carlow, as a county town, will also increase by 27% during this period and because of the requirement to boost the gateways and the hubs and in light of the new minimum population targets, the county area of Carlow, including Tullow, Rathvilly, Bagenalstown and many of their rural hinterlands, will be allowed build a total of only 60 houses over that seven-year period under these guidelines. That is what Carlow County Council is stating, and I only repeat it.

I would not expect the Minister of State, Deputy Finneran, to answer that today, but perhaps he would address these points on Report Stage. I refer to Carlow only as an example of a local authority. The members stated that there are similar consequences in other counties. The obligation to create the critical mass allied to the new minimum population targets will allow little development outside of the cities.

These are the concerns of an SPC that has travelled from Carlow to Dublin today to outline them because they know this Bill is going through the Houses of the Oireachtas. These are the practical concerns about the implications of the regional planning guidelines and the way it is proposed to manage planning. It stakes up many of the arguments made by Senators in this House where they are concerned about towns and villages which could have genuine aspirations, to which they are entitled. No matter how small a town or village and no matter what background an individual has come from, as an Irish community or an Irish person they are entitled to aspire to develop their communities. This planning process and the Bill will restrict that potential and that aspiration. I cannot see how anybody could argue otherwise.