Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Boyhan for his reply. When it comes to the skill sets of our local authority members, he touched on a very important point. As we look to fix the housing sector in the country while also planning for future population growth, local authority members, together with Senators in this House and Members of the Dáil, will be a part of the solutions and driving those solutions.

From my experience in Dublin City Council, when it came to things like the city development plan we were given some form of training. High density ratios and the other aspects which needed to be considered when a development plan is being framed were explained to us. We were told about the importance of different types of zoning, mixed use and those types of things. I would like to think that training happens in every local authority, but if it is not, it is something I will consider.

When it comes to county and city plans, it is not an executive function and members of local authorities have an extremely important role and responsibility. I want them to be able to execute that responsibility with confidence. They do not need to work hand in hand with the planners and will never be skilled as professional planners because it is not their full-time job, but they need to be able at least to engage with them at a sufficiently high level to make sure they are working in the best interests of the county or city in terms of development and planning.

On transparency and confidence in the system, historically our planning system took a huge hit because of things which were revealed during the Mahon tribunal and other investigations. Over recent years a great amount of work has been done to restore that confidence and faith in the system. We have to maintain that, and that is why the recommendation from Mahon is so important. The legacy will involve setting up an office, something the Government and Oireachtas will achieve this year. It is a very important step change compared with how we viewed the planning process in the past.

An extra layer of oversight and transparency will be transformative in terms of what we are hoping to do. We hope to align our national plan all the way down to local area plans and have a seamless follow-through. We want to be able to have confidence that someone is looking at every step of the process, independent of Government and each part of that process. That is what the regulator will do. It will be a very important change. If we can achieve it together as soon as possible on the legislative side, I can then move quickly to appoint a regulator and get the office up and running.