Paudie Coffey (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In any proper planning system, there must be a hierarchy of priority. The Government is correct to identify the five cities around Ireland that it will grow and enhance and which will double in population in the next number of years. Towns such as Carlow, Kilkenny and Clonmel in the south east can be the next priority in terms of investment. That is the way to do it. If we spread our resources too thinly and dilute the infrastructure right across the country, we do not work efficiently and generate value for money from the taxpayer's investment. We must have a robust, sustainable planning system in the country and that is the reason the National Planning Framework: Ireland 2040 Our Plan is so important.

As we engage with the National Planning Framework: Ireland 2040 Our Plan, it is timely that we have an independent office of the planning regulator that will oversee the implementation of Government policy in terms of regional and local development. The national planning framework should trickle down to the Regional Assemblies and county and city developments plans and local area plans as well. There are many stakeholders involved in the delivery of sustainable county and local development plans. As we know, the stakeholders are the local authorities and the executive management but, as Senator Boyhan said, it is the councillors, the elected members, who have reserve functions. We need to see consistency and sustainability. We will not have that unless we have full transparency and oversight. The new office of the planning regulator will bring that benefit. We must learn from the past mistakes, and bring oversight and transparency and allow alignment and co-ordination of our various development plans so that they are coherent and sustainable.

The office of the planning regulator will have oversight and have responsibility in terms of the review of the systems and procedures in the planning process. That includes the local authorities which are the planning authorities but also An Bord Pleanála. Many of us, as public representatives, will have had experience of engagement with An Bord Pleanála. It is timely that An Bord Pleanála will be made accountable in terms of its procedures. There is much criticism, much of it justified, of the long delays in An Bord Pleanála coming to decisions for critical infrastructure and otherwise. I do not lay that at the door of An Bord Pleanála, but there are various reasons for it. When there are objections, either frivolous or genuine, as the Minister knows, the problem is that An Bord Pleanála has time and again deferred decisions to the real frustration of the development of critical infrastructure. That must be addressed, and I certainly hope that this Bill will address it in terms of oversight and review of the efficiency of the way An Bord Pleanála works.

Senator Boyhan suggested that the office of the planning regulator should not be accountable to the Minister. I would argue against that, as a democrat. I know that Senator Boyhan is a democrat as well. One could apply that at local authority level, for example. Does one leave planning decisions to the county manager or is the planning function of that council the responsibility of the councillors? I believe in a democracy. The Minister is the elected member of the Government to oversee everything that happens during the term of that Government. It is correct that the office of the planning regulator reports to the Minister. The Minister has invested in him significant powers in terms of the protection of the interests of the citizens, but under the terms of this Bill, the Minister is accountable. If, for any reason, the Minister does not agree with the recommendations of the independent regulator, he or she must justify his or her decision and lay down the reasons before the Houses of the Oireachtas. In a democracy, the buck should stop with the Minister and not with some bureaucrat. I disagree with Senator Boyhan on that point. I know where he is coming from in terms of wanting the office of the planning regulator to have full independence but we are a democratic State and we have a Government. The Government of the day is ultimately accountable to the citizen. If the decision-making of the Minister of the day is incorrect, he or she should be held to account by the Government and the citizens who put him or her there.

The Fianna Fáil Members stated that the office of the planning regulator does not have the powers of enforcement or sanction. They want the office of the planning regulator to be judge, jury and executioner. I do not agree with that view either. In the Bill, the independent regulator has the power to call in the Ombudsman, the Garda and the Standards in Public Office Commission in instances of possible corruption or malpractice. Those agencies have the relevant authority and powers to prosecute where any malpractice or corruption is found.

The Minister has prepared good legislation in that respect. There should always be a healthy tension in regard to the creation of development plans between the elected members and the professional planners in the local authorities. The elected members come from the communities with a mandate from the citizens who reside in the communities and they know best what the communities want. We cannot have unrestrained development without proper co-ordination in the hierarchy of planning.

I welcome the Bill and look forward to the debate on all Stages of it.