Tim Lombard (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House and acknowledge the importance of this Bill. The Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2016 is very important and it deals with matters left over from the Mahon tribunal that must be addressed. Most of the issues have already been mentioned by Senators this afternoon but I have some comments.

The first regards the timelines of county development and national plans and how these are tied together. The Minister of State mentioned that there should be some synergy between the plans so they can work together and it should relate to elections as well. There was a bizarre case in Cork in 2014 when a council changed halfway through a county development plan. Between two public consultation phases there were 38 new councillors coming in and making very important decisions. With the deepest respect to everybody involved, their job was impossible as a result. They missed much of the public consultation phase over 18 months and halfway through the process they were stuck with a very complicated and intense proposal. Most people have experience of the process and I have gone through it on three different occasions.

We need to step back from this and tie elections of councillors to the process so they can be properly trained and informed. When they have to make key decisions, they will then have the ability to know what they can and cannot do. They will also understand the process. In previous cases, they were not aware of the process. If there are 55 councillors and 38 come in halfway through a process, it becomes very unwieldy. There is a body of work we must examine to tie in the sequence of local elections, which happen in a five-year cycle, to these plans. That will bring about a more coherent plan that can deliver better for the people.

There are some very important aspects of this Bill that must be welcomed. For example, there is the matter of developers involved with unfinished housing estates. This is a very important part of the legislation as, unfortunately, we have seen rogue builders over the past decade, if not more, and they can emerge again. These developers are coming back on stream so we must have the ability to weed them out and ensure that when it comes to developing our villages and towns, we do not see the mistakes we saw before. We must look at their reputations. If the builders do not have the appropriate reputations, local authorities must be strong. Local authorities have compulsory purchase order powers in legislation, which are probably the strongest in the State, but they do not want to use them. The executives do not want to use the stick that is required in some cases. It is important that the Minister of State's Department leads by example to ensure that rogue builders can be taken to task. We have seen from time to time local authorities taking the easy option instead of the hard path. We must work on that. If we can ensure developers are aware that local authorities will be strong, we will have sustainable development.

Another matter mentioned by many Senators is the fees attached to local authorities. There is the proposal to reduce the fee for public representatives, mainly councillors, and it is important that local representatives be given the opportunity to make a submission free of charge like organisations such as An Taisce. I do not wish to put the Minister of State on the spot but when was the last time the fee for planning permission was changed? It must be a decade, if not more.