Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Cathaoirleach for selecting this Commencement matter and the Minister of State for coming to the House to deal with it. The matter relates to the Government's plans for making new temporary appointments to the board of An Bord Pleanála. I hope the Minister of State will outline what those plans are and make a statement on them.

None of us needs a lesson on An Bord Pleanála and the lack of confidence in the board among many members of the public. I acknowledge, as I have done all along, that there is a place for An Bord Pleanála. It needs to be restructured and reconstituted, and needs greater focus and clarity. Above all, it needs to communicate its decisions in a timely manner and to explain in greater detail decisions to overturn its inspectors' decisions or recommendations. This is presenting difficulties for members of the public who do not quite understand the dynamic between the inspectors and the board itself. It creates a feeling that there is a tension there and they cannot understand it. There has to be such a tension and I accept that the board has to take decisions.

I do not subscribe to the idea of scrapping An Bord Pleanála. I support its work and acknowledge there are great people in it doing their best. There are, however, challenges and difficulties. I hope An Bord Pleanála can bounce back and build a strong, confident relationship with the people it represents and rebuild the professionalism it has shown in the past in the area of planning and determining planning appeals.

I understand from media reports that the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage will appoint temporary members to fill a number of vacancies on the board. I also understand the board needs its full complement of board members because while there are ongoing investigations, the board still has to do its work. The chairman needs to have a full board and its members need to work together constructively. I understand there are only six board members still in place in the crisis-hit planning authority. As I said, An Bord Pleanála is the subject of ongoing investigation and it would not be appropriate for the Minister of State or me to comment on the series of investigations. Clearly, there will be structural reform. We need a full complement of board members and we need to rebuild confidence in it.

I am conscious that there needs to be greater clarity about the Minister's intentions. Will all the new board members be ministerial appointees? Will the Minister seek public servants to fill the temporary positions? What is temporary? I presume it is for a period of up to 12 months because that is the time it will take to put in place the new structures. Is the Minister of State in a position to indicate whether these or future appointments will be filled by the Public Appointments Service? That is an open and transparent way to do this and it is particularly important. I accept that there is chronic understaffing and there are rushed decisions and that the board is not always in a position to determine decisions within the specified timeframe, which is an issue. In essence, I am asking what the Minister's short-term plans are for filling the current vacancies on the board and what his long-term plans are for bringing in people to serve on the board.

I will finish on this point. There is a case for allowing the representative bodies, the Local Authority Members Association, LAMA, and the Association of Irish Local Government, AILG, not necessarily to nominate members to the board but to nominate persons who could be considered by an independent appointments commission. There is a way to move away from having ministerial appointments to the board. While the Minister could make recommendations and put forward names, ultimately there has to be an independent system for making appointments to the new board.