Grace O'Sullivan (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State and his officials. Our discussion of this Bill is overshadowed by the announcement today that the Government intends to bring forward further amendments to the Planning and Development Act. The stated purpose of these amendments will be to limit access to justice in planning cases. This would be contrary to both the Constitution and the Aarhus Convention, to which Ireland is a signatory. The fact that this negative proposal has apparently been approved by the Cabinet is shameful. I hope that it goes no further and is never brought before the Oireachtas.

To deal with this Bill, I welcome the establishment of the planning regulator. The current system for establishing coherence between development plans at various levels has been found to be inadequate. An independent planning regulator is an important reform to address this. The proposed role of the regulator in reviewing the performance of planning functions is especially welcome. It is particularly needed in the area of enforcement as many citizens and environmental advocates report great difficulties in getting planning authorities to perform their enforcement functions effectively.

The results of inadequate planning enforcement affect both the public as a whole and the purchasers of houses and apartments built to low standards. I hope the independent regulator will particularly focus on ensuring local authorities are effective enforcement authorities. We should also make use of this Bill to make further important amendments to planning legislation and I will be proposing amendments accordingly.

Part of the reason for the planning regulator is the inadequacy of the current system in achieving consistency between plans at different levels. The phrase "have regard to" has been found to mean very little in planning law. As a result it was replaced with the phrase "be consistent with" and it is this test which public authorities are required to apply and the planning regulator will implement. The same phrase is used in the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act. Planning authorities are required to "have regard to" the national objective of transition to a low-carbon, climate resilient and environmentally sustainable economy. This phrase has little to no effect.

We have made very little progress in planning for the low carbon transition. It is quite the opposite. Development plans and planning decisions continue to lock us in to high energy use and fossil fuel-based solutions. Therefore, we should use this Act to require that planning decisions of all types are consistent with the national transition objective. I ask the Minister of State to bring forward an amendment to this effect. Climate change is a shared priority for all of us and the Government has already acknowledged that Ireland is a climate laggard. The Taoiseach referred to that recently. I look forward to hearing the Minister of State's response to this.

The difficulties with inadequate enforcement I referred to apply to both planning enforcement and building control enforcement. The two systems have failed us gravely in recent years with serious consequences, especially for owners of defective houses. I believe part of the solution is to have them interlink and support each other. Therefore, we should amend the planning code to make explicit that "satisfactory completion" as defined in the Act includes compliance of all houses with the building regulations. Provision for financial guarantees is an important tool in effective enforcement. We should provide that all developments of two or more houses should include financial guarantees.

In 2015 the European Court of Justice clarified that the Water Framework Directive precludes the granting of permissions which may cause a deterioration in the status of a water body. This is, of course, directly effective in Ireland. However, Irish planners do not refer to European Court of Justice judgments as part of their daily work. The Water Framework Directive would be much better applied in practice if the principle set out in the 2015 Weser judgment was clearly stated in the Planning and Development Act.

The provision in section 28 of the Planning and Development Act, introduced by the Minister of State's predecessor, Deputy Alan Kelly, enabling a highly centralised planning policy without consultation or consideration should be deleted. We should also provide that Part 8 applications are required to contain the same information that an ordinary planning application for the same development would have to contain.

Some local authorities have identified what appears to be a drafting error in section 208 of the Planning and Development Act. It appears to require maintenance of those rights of way listed in plans at the time when the section was commenced. At least one council has formed the legal view that the obligation to maintain rights of way does not apply to any rights of way listed subsequent to the commencement of section 208. I understand the Department has details of this but we would be happy to provide them if required. For the sake of clarity, I think an appropriate amendment should be included in the Bill.

I will refer back to Senators Murnane O'Connor and Coffey with regard to the national planning framework and the importance of regional balance, particularly outside the greater Dublin area. My own region, Waterford, has been on the back foot and it is imperative for the growth of the south east for a city such as Waterford to have the support and infrastructure to enable it to be the engine for the south east.

I look forward to more discussions on the Bill. We need to take significant steps to ensure that the planning system delivers on the transition to a low carbon environmentally sustainable economy and society. Our role as legislators is to ensure the legal framework within which planning operates places sustainability at the centre of the planning system. I thank the Minister of State for his presentation and look forward to the development of the Bill.