Pauline O'Reilly (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State is welcome. I also welcome the Bill. It has been through pre-legislative scrutiny, which it is always important to point out. I am going to go over the main conclusion from the pre-legislative scrutiny because I think it encapsulates everything, although I will find some other points to go through in my contribution. The pre-legislative scrutiny concluded that these streamlining provisions are urgently required to ensure confidence in the Irish planning system by eliminating surplus steps in the substitute consent process to ensure it is efficient, fit for purpose and fully in compliance with EU environmental requirements and recent court judgments. That is what pre-legislative scrutiny anticipated this Bill will do.

It is important to consider the history of the situation. From my own investigations, I understand the 2000 Act, as amended in 2010, which dealt with substitute consent, was an attempt to rectify deficiencies that were identified in 2006 by the European Court of Justice. In 2020, in a case heard by the Supreme Court, it was found that part of the substitute consent was inconsistent with EU environmental law and, in particular, the environmental impact assessment, EIA, directive. That judgment is important. The case was taken by An Taisce, which sometimes comes in for criticism but can lead to better outcomes, in that it has brought us to this point of amending our planning laws. I will touch briefly on some of the amendments Senator Cummins has raised and that I am in favour of. As I have said in the past, if we address issues, we will not need the same number of judicial reviews. That is where we need to get to with all our planning laws. We can reduce the level of judicial reviews through these efficiency measures. This is exactly that kind of measure. It shows we have the willingness to do that, as was encapsulated in the programme for Government.

I will point out two of the recommendations from the committee and ask the Minister of State where they stand. The first recommendation is that regulations governing time limits for public consultation on substitute applications be extended from five to 12 weeks. Having spoken to the Chair of the committee, my colleague Deputy Matthews, who is here and is welcome, I know that if the first stage of the process is eliminated, there may be an opportunity to extend consultation. There may only be one stage but it would include full public participation, the lack of which was a key part of the criticism in the 2020 judgment of the Supreme Court.

The second recommendation is that the Department provides for adequate staff and resources for planning and enforcement departments in local authorities. We all agree on that point. I ask the Minister of State to update us on that matter, which is important.

Those are my main points. I will come back in on Committee Stage. It would be valuable if the Minister of State were to have a conversation with Senators and Deputy Matthews about the amendments and our views on them. We are fundamentally in favour of the Bill. It takes into consideration all of the environmental assessments that are required. We came in for criticism in 2006 because planning retentions were widespread across Ireland, which we all remember. We have moved beyond that but this Bill will move us even further. It will bring us closer to proper environmental assessment, done efficiently, which can reduce the number of appeals.