Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

There is a great deal of merit in what Senator Fitzpatrick said. It is about tracking, tracing, targeting and holding people to account. There has been much talk today about empowering housing authorities and local authorities but it goes back to that thing about the executive and the reserve function. Most people here have been involved in local government at some level and we know the frustrations. Senator Fitzpatrick touched on them. She was a member of Dublin City Council for a long time so she has vast experience and is aware of the difficulties. Every time, there is a change of council, of county or city manager or whatever, there is a whole new dynamic that involves learning, getting to know people and banging one's head against the wall.

I have been speaking to councils in the past few weeks about this Bill and asking what the frustrations are. There are people who have literally been broken by the system. They came in with great ideals but they are . The problem with our elected members is that they are not planners, economists or financial people. They are ordinary, well-meaning people living in their communities who are very committed. Many of them have other expertise and experience but they are not paid to be accountants or to have the fine-grained expertise that is required. If we are talking about empowering our planning authorities, housing authorities and local authorities, we need to look at this again because it will involve a whole other level of work. It must be done professionally, involve track, trace and accountability and include targets.

I like the idea of the three-, five-, seven- and ten-year timescales. I think these are really important. I know that city and county councillors, including many of the newer people who were first elected two years ago, are struggling with their city and county development plans. They are being told "Just sit down and listen and we'll tell you what we have". There is too much land in my local authority area. We are being told by the planning regulator that we have far much land to zone for housing. Is that not a lovely thing to be able to say? The planning regulator has indicated, however, that some of this land will have to be dezoned because there is too much zoned land available. This is in an area where there is great housing demand, an issue with affordability and thousands of people on local authority housing lists.I understand there are 60 or 70 voids in my local authority area at this time, including in Blackrock, Monkstown, Seapoint, Dún Laoghaire, Dalkey, Killiney and other places where people would love to live.

There are many problems in this regard. Senator Fitzpatrick is right that it is about empowering the executives and elected members of local authorities to come together and drive the process forward. It is not a case of one versus the other. A team effort is needed and we must listen to the councillors who represent the people. It will really bring the process along if it has the support of elected members.

Reference was made to the Shanganagh site between Shankill, Killiney and Bray, which we have been waiting years to see developed. It is one of the finest sites in Dublin, served by the Luas and other public transport services, overlooking the Wicklow and Dublin mountains and two minutes from the coastline. It is a beautiful, walled-in estate, ideal for development, but somehow it has taken years to make any progress on it. To be fair, the local councillors kept pushing for it even when they were told it was not possible. Eight years ago, the talk was that it would be done by 2022. I said at the time that I could not believe it would take so long. We are almost at 2022 and there is nothing happening there.

Senator Fitzpatrick is clever and I am sure she has flagged this amendment to her party colleagues. I will be surprised if the Minister of State does not accept it. We need to add to it a provision that if the local authorities, including members, are to be involved in and driving all of this, then they need the resources to do so. We know there are issues with filling vacancies on local authorities. They have not traditionally employed the expertise needed for property real estate management, forward planning, visionary planning and everything else. That requires a particular expertise but it does not require people to be permanently employed. The expertise can be sourced in and synergised, using a system of clusters of local authorities to avail of it. We do not need to get hung up on having experts on the staff of every local authority. Councils can draw on the strengths of a pool of experts who are available to lend their services. I support the amendment in principle.