John Cummins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister and thank him for choosing Seanad Éireann as the venue for the introduction of this very important legislation. The Planning and Development and Foreshore (Amendment) Bill provides for the efficient discharge of business of An Bord Pleanála; I will touch on that shortly. It also makes some minor amendments to the Foreshore Act 1933 to ensure that the body of water above the seabed is included in the definition of the foreshore. Along with other Members, I attended the briefing with departmental officials yesterday. I thank those officials for making themselves available to Senators for questions on the Bill.

My two Seanad colleagues mentioned the difficulties at An Bord Pleanála of which we are all very well aware. Confidence in the board has deteriorated over the past 12 months. The revelations of the governance issues are a deep concern to all of us. That is why it is essential and timely to have this legislation in order to ensure we can appoint an interim chairperson to take the helm at the organisation and bring about the change that is needed within that organisation. The Bill provides that the board will have 14 members but can be go beyond that where the Minister deems it necessary. I would argue that he will need to go beyond those 14 members in light of the acute challenges we are all aware of in meeting timelines for planning decisions, not just in respect of housing developments but also with consents for offshore wind energy projects, which all go through An Bord Pleanála.

Despite what builders and developers want, it is not possible to have certainty in the planning system. It is not possible to guarantee that something will come out the way that they want. However, we can have predictability on the timelines. That is very important both in this and the wider review of the planning legislation which is ongoing at present. What is happening cannot continue. I refer to situations where a planning decision is appealed to An Bord Pleanála, reaches the deadline, An Bord Pleanála informs the developer that it has not been able to meet the deadline and is extending it to a future date and then the developer does not hear about the matter again. Many housing developments are in the ether of having gone past the deadline and gone through the extended timeline. When they contact An Bord Pleanála, it states that it cannot give a time as to when a decision will be made. That is simply unacceptable when we have such an acute shortage of housing. The Minister will need to go beyond the 14 members in that regard.

As the officials said yesterday and as the Minister said today, the foreshore piece is a minor amendment that has arisen more as a clarification of the existing provisions. Wind Energy Ireland has expressed some concerns in that context. Those concerns relate more to speeding up the process of applications for surveying. We all know how important offshore wind is in meeting our 2030 targets for emissions reductions. The sector is being hamstrung as a result of not being able to get through the process. Again, it comes back to the timelines. In the wider review of planning legislation, we need to consider significant penalties for An Bord Pleanála not meeting its deadlines.

I appreciate that the Minister will provide more details on Thursday in the form of the amendments he intends to bring forward. From what he has outlined, it seems he is exempting certain developments from the planning process or expediting the planning process, as he put it, in the context of modern building technology. I assume he is referring to rapid-build homes. We are often criticised for not utilising those modern building techniques. They have come on in leaps and bounds in recent years, and could provide a quicker and more efficient housing solutions in the short term. I look forward to hearing the Minister expand that matter.

From what the Minister outlined, I understand that the chief executive will be required to have consulted elected members and he or she will be required to give a public notice of the proposed development. Am I to assume that if the chief executive is so minded, it will not require a vote of elected members and that the chief executive may proceed with a development but must consult? I ask the Minister to expand on that. Everyone in the House will support any endeavour on the part of the Minister to speed up the delivery of social and affordable homes for individuals and families throughout the country. We need to ensure that we get it right. I am sure that the Minister's team along with the Attorney General are poring over that as we speak. I look forward to those amendments coming before the House on Thursday.