Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I understand why the amendments are tabled but I will not be accepting them. I will explain why. Fundamentally, what we are doing here is returning LRD-type developments to the local level. The importance and emphasis on the development plan is being restored.That is an important reserved function of our councillors.

Regarding everything the Minister of State, Deputy Burke, and I set out to do to date in local government, going back to the terms and conditions for councillors, to which we gave a commitment, and to giving powers to local councillors to pause development plans, which some people said could not be done, we have done. I have done everything I can to strike a balance and to ensure local councillors have powers appropriate to the jobs they do. Senator Casey was right in saying our councillors need to be au fait with what is happening in the areas in which they were elected. Most of them are not professional planners. We do not want any of our public representatives to get involved in specific planning applications and recommendations. What we want is development plan-led, local area plan-led and masterplan-led planning, The County and City Management Association raised the issue of pre-application consultation in advance of strategic housing development applications going to An Bord Pleanála. That was something of a sop back at that time because the decision on it was above and beyond the role of the council and went straight to An Bord Pleanála.At that time there was a process where the views of the councillors were noted in a written statement included in a strategic housing development application or in the submission made by the council. I and the Government want to do more than that. It was agreed by me, the Minister of State, Deputy Burke, and others to get large-scale residential developments back under the decision-making process of the councils and the planners in the context of what all of our councillors are dealing with on a daily basis.

Importantly, the Bill includes a provision in section 5 which states, "Where a planning authority receives an application for permission to which section 32A(1) applies it shall notify the elected members of the planning authority of the making of the application, of where the application is available for inspection, and of such other information as may be prescribed." Planning authorities must do that. We have included that provision in the Bill. In addition, we want to balance the role of councillors, whom I highly regard and respect. I was a councillor. I value local government and councillors. Everything I and the Government have done in the short time we have been in office proves that.

We must also must make sure we have a streamlined planning system. Let us not forget what this legislation is about. It seeks to streamline our planning system to deliver, on average, 33,000 good quality homes for our people across the country. We have had issues in planning, not of our councillors making I might add. Much more reform in planning is required such as reform of the judicial review process and the work under way by the Attorney General and my Department of a full planning review involving our officials. There are matters that need to be amended.

We need to make sure we have a planning process for large-scale residential developments that is timebound. I draw attention to the turnaround times set in the legislation to ensure there are pre-planning meetings that are transparent. We accepted an amendment this evening to further underpin that. Transparency is being provided. When a planning application is lodged it must be responded to, further information can only be requested in certain specific cases and we will have a conclusion to the process in a 16-week period. Also, importantly, with respect to observations, be they from elected members or residents, we are rightly allowing recourse to An Bord Pleanála. The board is not the first port of call, as it was in the case of strategic housing developments. The Bill restores planning back to our local authorities but with an emphasis on the development plan. That is what this is about. Our councillors have a reserved function and they are the people who are elected to put development plans together, obviously in co-operation and consultation with the executive in each of the local authorities. This Bill restores the primacy of development plans. There were instances with respect to some decisions under the strategic housing development process, the most contentious of which were ones where people rightly raised their concerns and development plans were set aside and disregarded. That will not happen any more with the passing of this Bill, and rightly so.

While I completely understand what the Senators are trying to achieve I put it to them that we are achieving that and more. Planning has been restored to the local authorities. The primacy of the development plan is restored. We have a specific section, section 5(a), which ensures the elected members are, as a matter of law, informed of any application tabled. In addition, thanks to the work Senator Boyhan and others did at the time, elected members, should they wish to make a written submission to a planning application, can do so without it involving any cost for them. We must also make sure we do not have a planning system that will tie up local planning authorities in many different stages of planning along the line that will delay the provision of much-needed homes and facilities for our people. It is about striking that balance. In fairness, the Senators understand that. In order to strike that balance, I am not in a position to accept amendments Nos. 15, 16 or 27. The Department advised previously that this has been done by way of circular, and that is important. The facility already exists for elected members to seek information or factual matters relating to particular planning applications as they deem fit on a case-by-case basis. That is only right where a councillor has a particular interest in a application that has gone forward.

We know what this legislation is about. It restores the primacy of the development plan. We are providing in law that elected members must be informed of any application that is lodged. They can make submissions to it and seek factual information on those matters. That is appropriate in balancing the process and having a streamlined planning system that will deliver homes, facilities and infrastructure for our people and, in this instance, in large-scale residential developments. We need to get moving with those. In my view it is a better process than the strategic housing development process.