Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire. Is maith an rud é go bhfuilimid ag brú ar aghaidh leis an reachtaíocht seo mar tá géarchéim tithíochta sa tír, ach tá cuideanna áirid den Bhille seo ag cur imní orainn. We are happy that a Bill is coming forward and that some of the issues in the housing sector are being addressed. However, we have some very serious concerns regarding parts of this Bill. We look forward to teasing out these concerns with the Minister.

A worrying provision relating to the strategic housing developments and proposing the fast-track planning procedures for residential developments of 100 units of more and large-scale student accommodation projects of 200 or more bed spaces is contained in Part 2. The Bill will also place a statutory requirement on An Bord Pleanála to report back in 16 weeks. One of the problems we have with this provision is that it appears the Government is tampering with the planning laws in order to facilitate these new developments. We do not feel that the Minister has provided a sufficient evidence base for this proposal. We would like him to clarify where the evidence is which shows that this is a good way to proceed. We do not feel that the Minister has demonstrated either that the move will not undermine the good planning and further alienate communities from the planning process by taking it out of the hands of the local authorities. We are unconvinced that better solutions were not considered, such as facilitating a greater use of pre-planning engagement with local communities. We are also not convinced that planning delays are the main reason housing projects are being held up. We would like to find out more about the evidence for that.

Our concerns are echoed by organisations such as the Association of Irish Local Government, which has issued quite a number of notes in this area that relate to the general role of the local authority planning function, the centralisation of the planning function, the role of An Bord Pleanála, the recruitment of technical planning staff, public engagement in the planning process, etc. We can discuss those elements further. The Minister might offer his initial thoughts on this and the evidence that this is a good move.