Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I think Senator Boyhan for raising this issue. The Tribunal of Inquiry into Certain Planning Matters and Payments, otherwise known as the Mahon tribunal, was established by order of the then Minister for the Environment and Local Government back in 1997 to inquire into and report on various planning matters as set out in resolutions passed by the Dáil and Seanad concerning the establishment of the tribunal. As Senator Boyhan will be aware, the tribunal made in total 64 recommendations, of which ten are planning related and fall to my Department to implement. Some of the planning-related recommendations have already been implemented, such as the development of regional, spatial and economic strategies by the regional assemblies, and prohibiting the use of powers available to elected members under section 140 of the Local Government Act 2001 concerning planning matters.

The majority of the remaining Mahon tribunal planning-related recommendations are provided for in the Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2016 which is presently being progressed through the Oireachtas, with Dáil Committee Stage scheduled for 12th of April next.I understand the Senator raised this issue with me during a debate last week. All Stages of the Bill are progressing.

The Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2016 proposes to provide legislative underpinning in respect of the following tribunal recommendations. It proposes to place on a statutory footing the proposed new national planning framework, to be titled Ireland 2040 - Our Plan, as a successor to the 2002 national spatial strategy. It also proposes the establishment of a new independent office of the planning regulator to take over the functions of evaluating and assessing local development plans and regional strategies, to generally oversee the operation of the planning system and to conduct necessary reviews of the operation of the planning system. This proposal is particularly important and will introduce a further institutional layer of sophistication and oversight to the planning system.

The Bill also proposes enhanced transparency in the planning process, requiring the publication of submissions, local area plans and development plans, as well as the chief executive's report on such submissions on the website of the planning authority. It also proposes the forwarding of any proposed grant of planning commission which will materially contravene a development or a local area plan to the relevant regional assembly for observations. The payment of reduced or no fees by elected members when making submissions and planning applications as well as the noting of such representations on a development planning file is also proposed.

There are two planning related recommendations in the final report of the Mahon tribunal which have not yet been progressed, one of which the Senator mentioned. The first recommendation relates to the proposal that members of regional assemblies shall be directly elected. In this regard, the new regional assembly structures were only established in 2014, further to the Local Government Reform Act of that year. Accordingly, it is considered premature to progress this recommendation at the early stage of the operation of the new regional assembly structures. However, it is intended that implementation of this recommendation will be reviewed after the new structures have run a full five-year term in 2019.

The other outstanding tribunal recommendation which remains to be progressed, and to which the Senator referred, relates to the introduction of a requirement that applicants for planning permission be required to disclose if they have made a political donation to a member of a local authority or elected representative when submitting a planning application and also to indicate the identity of the recipient of any such political donation.

On this matter, it is considered that issues relating to political donations generally are probably most appropriately addressed in the standards in public office legislation, which is a matter for the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform. However, the Minister will reflect further on whether it might be possible to address the issue of planning related political donations in the specific context of planning legislation. Committee Stage of the relevant Bill will be debated in April. I hope I have clarified the position for the Senator.