Sharon Keogan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is nice to see a Meath man in the Chair today. The Minister is very welcome to the House. This Bill is of great importance, as is any legislation concerning planning and development in this country. It is one of the fundamental tasks of government at a local and national level.

I will begin by addressing what this Bill seeks to do. I will touch on the issue of councils that may have made decisions while being unaware of the impending legislation and the possibility of extra time through the extension provided for in this Bill. The Minister might offer some of his thoughts on that. Could this Bill serve better those who may have rushed processes in their area in an effort to meet statutory guidelines? This Bill provides for an additional period of up to one year for the preparation of the development plans by planning authorities in response to the disruption to plan-making programmes. The Bill amends sections of the Planning and Development Act 2000 to provide for an additional one-year extension to be given to developers of commercial and domestic site developments. alongside that of the current six-year statutory period they are provided under the Act of 2000, along with the additional extraordinary period of six months, for the preparation of a new development plan, as necessary, due to the carriage risks of Covid-19 on public health at the discretion of the Minister. The putting in place of contingency measures in order to ensure the proper and continuing operation of the planning process is of the highest priority and careful consideration of the level of disruption the imposition of Covid-19 restrictions has had on construction is essential. I have spoken in this House before about the shutting down of our construction sector. I still believe Ireland was an outlier in this regard and our overly harsh cancelling of construction was not in line with that of our European neighbours. However, what is in the past is in the past and we need to see how we can effectively remedy the 2020 construction deficit as quickly as possible.

The deadline extension also serves as an olive branch to persons who have suffered substantial restrictions in their legitimate business endeavours, arising from the fact that it has not been possible for them, due to Covid-19 restrictions, to begin development nor continue to develop existing sites authorised in accordance with the Planning and Development Act 2000.

The Minister should consider offering our elected councillors independent legal and planning advice on upcoming plans. Many councillors take the county development plan seriously. How they shape the fabric of their counties is a serious business, so receiving the correct legal and planning advice, independent of the executive, is crucially important as most council executives have been instructed by the Office of the Planning Regulator on how to approach the upcoming plan.

This is not the correct way. This is a people's plan and outside interference by any Government body is wrong. My slight grievance is for those councillors who may have rushed vital steps of the preparation of development plans. Even with this time extension, steps may not be retaken in a more measured fashion. I understand we have all been dealing with less than satisfactory circumstances for the past year. Planning and development is simply too important to the good of this country to have the central process underpinning it being anything less than above reproach.

I do not come with a perfect solution to this but my concerns are valid and I wish to express them. I would be grateful if the Minister could address them. Unfortunately, many of us here are all too familiar with the problems which can arise when drafting a county development plan. It is bad enough when the problems are unavoidable or out of control but when they arise out of willful obstinance, it is another matter entirely.

Meath County Council, like many councils around the country, is in the process of drafting its county development plan. There have been a string of meetings around the county development plan with vital submissions given by both councillors and stakeholders. These meetings were publicly held online by videoconferencing and there exists 80 hours of audio and video, which the council is proposing to destroy.

Bizarrely, none of this has been made available to local councillors, with members of the executive refusing to grant access unless under supervision by them. No minutes of these meetings were drawn up after each planning meeting and agreed upon at the next, as is the standard practice. Instead, upon the completion of every meeting and at the very end of the of the process, a single document purporting to be a summary of all meetings was presented to the councillors.

Even then, multiple councillors raised serious concerns the document was not an accurate reflection of what had transpired at the meeting and yet, such concerns were dismissed out of hand. Councillors are being asked to approve potentially inaccurate or incomplete minutes of meetings held weeks or months ago, which they may or may not have attended personally while being denied at the same time copies of raw video and audio footage, which is in the hands of the executive.