Rebecca Moynihan (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I support the amendments and oppose the section. These amendments and this section go to the very heart of the argument that this Bill is a fallacy. I want to correct the record in the first instance. The Bill requires the establishment of a suitable, independent, objective and transparent procedure which "may" include the establishment of a committee. It does not guarantee the establishment of same. We have heard Members of this House saying that they object to the use of the phrase "power grab" in the context of this Bill and that we are in the middle of a housing emergency but there is nothing in this Bill that relates to housing. A Government amendment is meant to be coming but it has not even been drafted at this stage, which shows the fallacy of the Government's position on this.

To be clear, this Bill is being rushed through this House. A very flawed procedure is being set up, supposedly in response to the issues that have arisen recently in An Bord Pleanála, but actually in response to the vacancies therein. The Bill does not in any way address the problem around political appointees and what happened at An Bord Pleanála that has led to the public's lack of trust in the body.

I want to bring people back to 21 December 2016 when we were told that we were in a housing emergency and needed to fast-track housing development. These two Houses, against the cautioning of the Opposition, set up the strategic housing development, SHD, process, a move that was led by Fine Gael and supported by Fianna Fáil. That process did not speed up the delivery of housing but led to a massive increase in judicial reviews because the legislation underpinning it was fundamentally flawed. Even if an amendment comes before us next week that has been approved by the Dáil, it potentially will not meet the legal requirements. The Minister of State can say that it is going to speed up the delivery of housing as much as he likes but it will not do so if it does not meet the legal requirements for what constitutes an emergency. The housing emergency cannot be used as a cloak to hide bad procedure and bad law. Objecting to this legislation does not mean that we are opposing action on the housing crisis; it means that we are trying to get this right.

Fundamentally, the Bill in front of us is concerned with the procedures related to An Bord Pleanála and every single part of it represents a ministerial power grab. The Minister of State can argue that it is not but it is clear, in black and white, that it is and it does not establish an independent procedure. The Bill states that the appointment procedure "may" include the establishment of a committee and that is the fundamental point Senator Higgins is making. We will see in a year or two whether this legislation increases public confidence in An Bord Pleanála but I do not think it will do so. This legislation aims to make An Bord Pleanála more answerable to the Department even though it is supposed to be an independent planning body. That is why we are trying to introduce a sunset clause into this Bill. Whatever about the next couple of months, we need to take a close look at how our entire planning system operates and spend time thinking about ways to improve it. That might mean we no longer have An Bord Pleanála but an entirely new procedure or committee. The Government should be considering that rather than ticking a box that states "job done" and appointing a whole load of departmental people to the board of An Bord Pleanála.