Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This is the planning authority and councillors do not make planning decisions. We need to start to have an honest conversation here. Councillors have to be afforded an opportunity to have their say as representatives of the public, just like any member of the public should have an opportunity to make an objection or an observation to a planning application. Of course, we need to go beyond that because councillors represent large numbers of the public. Chief executives, as part of the process, and the planning authority should inform councillors and seek their views, if they want to give them, on large-scale planning applications. That is the way some local authorities work at the moment. A planning decision is not a decision for a councillor. A councillor obviously asks questions about an application and ensures it is consistent with zoning decisions, and LAPs, local area plans, county development plans and so on. That is the kind of scrutiny in which councillors are involved in all the time. They can continue to have that role.

However, the way some Members are talking it is as if councillors make planning decisions and we are taking that away from them. We are not. A planning authority, instead of making a decision in a local authority, would make a recommendation at the end of the nine-week consultation process which would be detailed. It will be a little like what they do at the moment when they are assessing a planning application and make a decision at the end of eight weeks or seek further information or whatever. They would make a recommendation before the application formally goes to the board. That is a proper process of consideration. The recommendation of the planning authority would have to be taken into account by An Bord Pleanála, as it is at the moment if the board is asked to appeal a decision.

I am trying to ensure there is a role for councillors in having the kind of say they have on large-scale planning applications being considered by a council for decision and that they would have a similar input in the context of the consideration under this Bill. I am not trying to take anything away from councillors. The planning authority, instead of making a planning decision that will go to An Bord Pleanála if it is appealed, will be making a recommendation knowing that it is automatically going on to An Bord Pleanála for a formal consideration.

I understand the other debate, which is separate, around the devolution of power to local authorities and councils, as well as many of the issues which they have had to deal with in the reform process of the past several years. This is not about the diminution of power for local authorities. This is about large-scale residential projects which require a planning decision. We are trying to streamline the decision-making process where the local authority has an important function, where the planning authority at local authority level makes a recommendation and can make recommendations around conditions that should be attached or that there should be consideration of those conditions being attached. It then goes on, under a statutory period, to An Bord Pleanála for a formal decision. An Bord Pleanála is also involved in the preplanning process to ensure local knowledge is carried through from the preplanning process to the formal consideration process.

That is a much more comprehensive approach than is currently the case. When there is an appeal to An Bord Pleanála from a local area, it may not have that kind of preplanning consultation knowledge around the local issues which apply. It simply looks at elements such as county development plans and so on. The reason I did not bring an amendment on how we include councillors in the process was because I wanted to hear what Senators had to say on this issue. Senator Victor Boyhan in particular has been talking about this issue for quite some time. We want to understand exactly what Senators are looking for and try to reflect that in an accurate wording. As for amendment No. 14, I do not believe we are a million miles apart on that.

Senator Denis Landy keeps raising this issue about us cutting out councillors or reducing the role of local authorities. It must be remembered this applies to only a tiny percentage of planning applications and it is only for the big ones. Even with those applications, there is still a strong role for the planning authority at local level in making a recommendation which will influence the final outcome with An Bord Pleanála. This is what happens anyway. We will try and put an obligation within that system to inform and consult councillors if they want to make a comment on that. Ultimately, planners are paid to make planning decisions and recommendations, as well as attaching conditions to those recommendations. It will be the planning authority, ultimately, which will do the report.The contributions from councillors, who represent the local community will certainly be factored into a report, but the planning decision and recommendations must come from the planning authorities.