Brian Ó Domhnaill (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 30:

In page 46, to delete lines 26 to 29 and substitute the following:“(8) The Government shall submit the draft of the revised or new National Planning Framework, together with the Environmental Report and Appropriate Assessment Report to a vote of each House of the Oireachtas before it is published and will be bound by that vote.”.

Amendment No. 30 relates to the national planning framework. Initially, my understanding and that of many colleagues to whom I spoke was that the national planning framework in draft and final form would be debated in both Houses of the Oireachtas and voted on prior to any implementation decision. This is, after all, an excellent plan, for which I want to give the Government credit. I made submissions during phases 1 and 2 of the plan because I thought it was important to do so and felt it was the right path to follow. We should have a long-term vision for the country. Having a 20-year vision is the way to go. I give credit to the officials working in the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government who spent so much time in consulting, drafting and crafting the plan prior to its publication. Ultimately, it was sent for public consultation, but, unfortunately, after the first phase of the public consultation process no feedback was given to those who had made submissions. Following the second call for submissions, again, there was no feedback and no report was published.

Much criticism was levelled at previous national development plans and frameworks. I understand Project 2040 is the sixth national development plan since the 1980s. Criticism was levelled at previous plans by the Government because they were "too political". My focus is not on whether the Government was right or wrong in stating that; I am just saying what happened. I agree that many decisions taken in previous plans were too political and that there was an absolute lack of joined-up thinking and project appraisal. Subsequent to this, excellent work was done during the time of the previous Government in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform in putting particular frameworks together for capital expenditure by the State across various Departments. One of the initiatives was an updated public spending code which provided an appraisal toolkit to appraise capital expenditure. One of my criticisms of the code is that it is confined to projects with a cost in excess of €20 million. The threshold should be brought down, as also identified by the IMF which made 27 specific recommendations on how Ireland should improve transparency and accountability in expenditure on major capital projects.I hope the Government will take those recommendations on board in their entirety before any money is spent on the national planning framework.

Ten years from now, members of the current Government cannot look back and say this Government may have got it wrong and should have obtained better value for money. That is what will happen if we let a runaway train down the track without having proper parameters in place. We see it in the case of national children's hospital project, which is running well over budget. There will be many more such projects.

Amendment No. 30 requires simply that we have a debate in both Houses of the Oireachtas on the national planning framework. While it is an excellent framework, it also has shortcomings, some of which I identified in my submissions. Apart from the statements to which I contributed in the House, I have not had an opportunity to debate the new framework. Statements are simply statements. I am not a member of the Joint Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government and nor are 95% of Members of the Oireachtas who we members of other committees and must deal with the work that involves.

If the Government want the buy-in it seeks and believes it has achieved, why will it not have a debate in these Houses? Why not allow every Member of the Seanad and Dáil who wants to participate to speak on the national planning framework given that it sets out a 20-year vision for the country? As national parliamentarians, we should all have an opportunity to provide an input into that process. Our only input so far has been through the public consultation process. It is wrong that we are not having an input in either of these Houses and that there will not be a vote on the framework.

Linked to the national planning framework is the capital expenditure programme of €116 billion set out in the national development plan. Much of this expenditure is tied up in the five urban centres, in particular, the capital city. I am not criticising the programme but calling for a debate. If we are to move away from the days of decisions being taken without proper economic scrutiny, why not publish the cost-benefit analyses carried out on the metro north project, for example? Why the secrecy? Why can we not get a copy of those cost-benefit analyses? Major decisions are being taken without transparency.

The Government should avail of the opportunity to have a debate in both Houses. The public would reward it for doing so as it would be the right thing to do. It would also be rewarded politically in forthcoming elections. It would be wrong for the Minister of State to try to proceed with this project with a Fine Gael banner wrapped around it, particularly with the rural-urban divide that has been created in this country. Regardless of whether this divide is real, it has been created in the public mind and members of the public have been talking about it more than politicians have. It is wrong that people living in rural areas feel isolated. I am not suggesting there is a lack of capital investment in rural areas but there is a perception that the national development plan only deals with urban areas. If it proceeds without proper scrutiny in the Houses, that perception could detract from all of the expenditure and good work in the plan.

I am confident the Minister of State will accept the amendment and I see no reason he would not do so. We spoke, on the previous amendment, about transparency and accountability, giving power to councillors and having democratical oversight. This is exactly what the amendment proposes to achieve. It is about giving elected Deputies and Senators democratic oversight of the national planning framework. Approximately €120 billion will be spent in the first ten years of the plan, with up to €500 billion to be spent by the State in the period to 2040. It does not make sense not to debate this plan on its initiation.

Amendment No. 31 deals with an annual review of the national planning framework. The national spatial strategy, for example, was an excellent plan with good objectives but progress in meeting these objectives was not measured and no annual or democratic review took place.

I will give the Minister of State, who I realise must liaise with his officials, a second. I am interested in having his ear as well because he is well aware of this plan.