Paudie Coffey (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the debate. I also welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Damien English, and his officials.

At long last this legislation is before the Oireachtas. As the Minister of State indicated, I was involved in the early stages of its preparation. The Bill is necessary for a number of reasons. We have seen huge failures in planning policy, planning legislation implementation and planning decisions that were unsustainable and caused problems in various local authorities. I will not engage in the blame game as to the reasons those problems occurred. Some blame wrong decisions by councils and councillors who were put there and voted in by the electorate and citizens of the State. There were also problems with officials who made bad decisions or who at times might have turned a blind eye. The Mahon tribunal reported and one of its main recommendations was the establishment of an independent office of planning regulator. It is welcome that at long last we have the legislation. Its introduction is timely.

The Minister of State, with his colleague, the Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, is due to announce in the coming weeks the new national planning framework. It has been the subject of much discussion in the context of regional balance and rural provision. I express my support for it. I have, however, raised issues about it, as I was quite entitled to do, at the Oireachtas joint committee which deals with environmental issues and also within the Fine Gael Parliamentary Party at which we have had robust discussions on it and the direction we want to see Ireland move in the next ten, 20 and 30 years.I strongly support the idea that we have regional balance as a counter weight to the strong performance of the economy in Dublin and its hinterlands. I totally reject the assertion that rural Ireland is neglected. I certainly believe that rural Ireland needs continuous support and we support rural areas by providing connectivity and infrastructure in the regions. How do we provide that infrastructure? We do so by implementing the hierarchy of planning and supporting strong regional cities that are driving the economy in terms of job creation. I respect Senator Murnane O'Connor's views on Carlow. I think she mentioned Carlow about 100 times in her contribution, as she always does.