Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Senator Humphreys has covered much of what I was going to suggest. I welcome this debate and spoke to Senator Reilly about it. He elaborated on this proposal in greater detail at its previous outing. It is a good one.

Over many years on a local authority I saw people present themselves as planners. Some of them were qualified but some unqualified, who had been in the business for 20 or 30 years and are exceptionally good. It is not all about textbooks and letters after one's name. There are people coming up to retirement who have learned the trade and have a really good feel for urban structure and design and development. I do not always buy into academia. I buy into experience as well. I have come across many developers who have tried to get stuff over the line in local authorities. We see how our country has been messed up by planners and developers and with the co-operation of both parties in some bad development. There are also many good developments.

We saw this in the health sector when the Government tried to bring in regulation for physiotherapists. We need to consult with people. The Irish Planning Institute, IPI, has become a very slick outfit in the past few years. It runs very good conferences. I took the time to look at its website today and I know some senior members of the organisation. It is a good organisation and is very responsible but I would not like to rule out other people. We need to have a short period of consultation to get a broad view of what the profession is thinking and how best to regulate it.