Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I join others in congratulating Senator Kyne on his appointment as Deputy Leader of the Seanad. I wish him well. He is a very experienced politician and I have no doubt that he will have no problem with the job.

I support the Order of Business and welcome that, at last, we are to start engaging on the Planning and Development Bill 2023. I look forward to respectful and meaningful engagement across the Houses on it. Yes, we will have differences of opinion.

The Deputy Leader will recall that we met in the west of Ireland last week. I spent a week there after that and had the opportunity of travelling all along the western seaboard. A recurring theme was the need for one-off rural housing and the promise of the current and previous Governments regarding the rural housing guidelines, with which the Deputy Leader will be very familiar because he lives in one of our most rural parts and has served the rural community of Galway county. This is important and we should have a debate on it. It will feed somewhat into our debate this afternoon but the officials tell me it really has nothing to do with it. Despite this, we are talking about proper planning and sustainable development, be it urban, regional or local. That is important. I look forward to the debate this afternoon.

The other key issue related to housing I want to bring to the Deputy Leader’s attention is the so-called fast-track planning process that we had involving An Bord Pleanála, the famous board whose reform we are going to discuss this afternoon. Despite this, we do not fully understand the difficulties and problems it has, because it entails an ongoing process. It is all not quite connecting as it should be. I have in front of me a spreadsheet listing over 20,000 residential unit applications stuck in An Bord Pleanála awaiting a decision. We have a housing crisis in this country and are talking about reforming our planning system and bringing speedier and more timely processes into the process, yet we have sat on these applications for a number of years. There are 20,000 residential unit applications sitting in An Bord Pleanála this very day that we need expedited. I am not looking for a favourable decision or a rejection but simply a determination so we can plan for these houses. The developers can organise the necessary funding to build and the critical infrastructure needed. That is another very important issue.

These are two issues on which I ask that we continue to remain focused. I will certainly be raising them this afternoon.

Again, I wish Senator Kyne well.