The former Minister, Deputy Simon Coveney's strategic housing development, SHD, legislation was a disaster. Eoghan Murphy's mandatory ministerial guidelines on building heights and apartment standards were a disaster. The Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien's transition mechanisms for the winding down of SHDs were a disaster. Each Minister for housing burdened our planning system with more and more bad legislation and bad regulation.

The result has increased conflict between communities and applicants, with more third-party appeals and more judicial reviews. Adhering to the bad legislation and regulations resulted in lost cases and increased legal costs at An Bord Pleanála. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have given us a planning system that is scarred by bad decisions, increased conflict, increased litigation and ever-increasing delay.

When in 2022, the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, announced a complete review of the Planning and Development Act, we had mixed feelings. We supported the stated objective of consolidating and updating over 20 years of complex planning legislation. We supported the stated objective of clarifying and simplifying the planning code to give consistency and certainty but given the extent of the damage done to our planning system by Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil governments, we were sceptical that the parties which created our dysfunctional planning system could fix it. However, we put these reservations aside and engaged with the process in good faith. We said we would work with the Government to get planning right. Two and a half years on to say that we are disappointed with the outcome would be an understatement.

Both the Bill before us and the entire process which has produced it are fundamentally flawed, and that is not just the view of Sinn Féin but is the view of the Irish Planning Institute which has said the Bill is not fit for purpose. It is also the view of lawyers and barristers who specialise in planning law and who have presented to the Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage. It is the view of residential developers, the wind energy sector, semi-State companies, local authorities, local communities, and environmental campaigners. Never has a Bill attracted such widespread and cross-sectoral criticism. Outside of Government, there is literally nobody who believes the Bill, as it stands, will make our planning system better. Indeed, the consensus is that the Bill is too long, overly complex and riddled with contradictions.

As a result, it is completely unworkable. If enacted, it will cause untold damage to our planning system. It will lead to increased conflict, third-party observations and appeals and ultimately increased litigation. The consequence will be significant delays to much-needed housing, renewable energy, public transport and critical infrastructure. The Bill will do the very opposite of what the Government and the Minister set out to do. The Bill further centralises the power to make planning law in the hands of the Minister and the Cabinet. The Oireachtas, local authorities and communities are sidelined. This will undermine confidence in the planning system and its decisions. The role of the Planning Regulator, positive to date, will change dramatically, blurring the lines between policy formulation and regulation.

The introduction of statutory timelines in the planning process is half-hearted, badly designed and not backed up by the necessary resources to ensure the timelines can be met. The promise of a new plan-led approach to planning is undermined by any multi-annual workforce plan to increase the staffing in what are already over-stretched planning authorities.

The proposed changes to the judicial review system are deeply flawed in intention and likely outcome. They are clearly an attempt to deny organisations and communities with very legitimate environmental or public health concerns from accessing justice. However, worse still, they are so badly designed, they are unworkable, and, according to legal experts, will actually increase the levels of litigation, including satellite and superior court litigation. All of this will result in one thing and one thing only, namely, the delay of much-needed housing, wind energy, public transport and critical infrastructure.

There are also the things not included in the Bill that should have been. There is nothing new on housing or affordable housing, on Traveller accommodation, on addressing the needs of people with disabilities, on climate or on addressing carbon in the built environment. Then there is a whole series of others changes, such as the exclusion of third parties from section 5 declarations that are, to date, unexplained and unjustified.

As if all of this were not bad enough, on Report Stage in the Dáil, the Government brought forward a lengthy list of significant amendments and true to form, it imposed a guillotine. This meant the majority of the changes proposed by the Government have not received any scrutiny to date.

Take the issue of go-away money, for example. Sinn Féin agrees with the Government that the law must be strengthened to root out this rotten, insidious practice. However, the amendment from the Government only makes it an offence to ask for go-away money. What about developers who offer it, in cases where third parties have genuine and legitimate concerns? Should this not be banned as well? In the absence of adequate time to discuss and scrutinise, poorly thought-through and ineffectual changes are now about to become law.

Likewise there is the damning judgment of the Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee, which days before the Bill was guillotined highlighted what it believes is serious non-compliance with the Government's obligations on public participation. What a total mess.

Despite all of this and our deep reservations as to the Government's motivation with this Bill, Sinn Féin will continue to engage constructively with the Minister of State and his officials as this Bill makes its way through the Seanad. We will table significant amendments, including new amendments to those sections not discussed in the Dáil. We will judge this Government not by its words but by its actions. If the Government changes the Bill for the better, we will support it but if it continues on its current path, we will have no choice but to oppose it. We want to get planning right. We cannot and will not, however, support any legislation that makes our planning system worse and that delays the delivery of much-needed housing, renewable energy, public transport and critical infrastructure.