Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

These amendments will amend sections 10, 12, 13, 20, 28 and 31 of the principal Act as well as sections 31AL, 31AM, 31AN, 31AP and 31AR of the Bill.The amendments to the above sections of the principal Act, including amendments to the current Planning and Development Bill 2016, as already passed on Committee Stage in the Seanad, are proposed to strengthen the provisions in the principal Act regarding the adoption and variation of statutory plans, local authority development plans and local area plans, as well as regional, spatial and economic strategies. These amendments are directly related to the proposed establishment of the office of the planning regulator, OPR, pursuant to this Bill and to the powers of the Minister to issue directions based on a failure by a planning authority to implement a recommendation made by the office of the planning regulator or a recommendation made by the Minister prior to the establishment of the OPR. In other words, the effectiveness of the OPR will be much stronger as a result of the amendments.

Under the existing provisions of the planning Act, local authorities when adopting or varying their development plans or local area plans, in addition to setting out objectives for a range of matters including the zoning of land for particular purposes, that is, residential, commercial, industrial or agriculture, the provision of infrastructure to serve the area, namely, transport, water, energy and waste, the protection of the environment and the built heritage, are required to take sufficient account of the proper planning and sustainable development of the area to which the plan relates, the statutory obligation on the local authority and any relevant policies or objectives for the time being of the Government or any Minister.

The existing wording requires the taking of sufficient account of the specified matters which could give rise to certain issues where, for example, elected members in the adoption or variation of development plans do not necessarily implement the spirit of such requirements in the final adopted version of the plan, even though they have been recommended to the planning authority in submissions by the Minister on the draft development plan or local area plan, an advisory function, which is to pass to the OPR on its establishment. An example in that regard would be where the elected members designated only a small area of land in the local authority development plan as suitable for renewable energy purposes, including wind energy, thereby undermining the achievement of national renewable energy objectives in that regard.

In light of the foregoing, the wording of the Act in this regard needs to be further elaborated and strengthened to clarify the need as a step in the adoption of variation processes for development plans and local area plans "to implement" as distinct from "taking sufficient account of" the national and regional development objectives set out in the national planning framework, the relevant regional spatial and economic strategy and the provisions of spatial planning policy requirements incorporated in statutory planning guidelines issued by the Minister pursuant to section 28(1)(c) of the Planning Act, all of which will be the subject of recommendations by the OPR to the planning authority once the OPR is established.

These changes, which will require numerous consequential amendments to the existing provisions of the planning Act, including amendments to ensure compliance with strategic environmental and appropriate assessment requirements, will have the effect of requiring elected members of local authorities and regional assemblies to more fully incorporate and respect national policies and objectives in the final adoption or variation of development plans or local area plans for their respective functional areas, thereby ensuring that such development plans and local area plans are consistent with and aligned to relevant national policies or objectives.