Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am pleased to bring the Bill, which has been described as generational legislation that will impact almost every aspect of our day-to-day lives, before the House. The Bill is the culmination of three years of legal and policy review. In the first instance, the Planning and Development Act 2000 was reviewed by the Office of the Attorney General over a 15-month period. This legal review was subsequently informed from a policy perspective by listening to the input of a diverse range of voices from across the planning sphere.This included those involved in delivery of vital infrastructure such as transport, housing and renewable energy, those advocating on behalf of environmental and heritage matters, as well as those at the operational front face of planning at local government and regional level.

Planning is, by its essence, a complex process. It balances the wider needs of society and the common good with the concerns of individuals. It considers the environmental, social and economic merits of a proposed development, expertly weighing up the technical documentation, while also taking account of the critical input of citizens, stakeholders and environmental NGOs, among others.

This is reflective of the process that has brought us before Senators today. Not all voices agree with the specific vision for planning but all have been listened to. It balances views and, where constructive and practical proposals have been made, I have endeavoured to incorporate these changes into the Bill. I entered this process in the same spirit, eager to listen to any new ideas that improve this essential body of legislation.

Over the past quarter of a century, the planning landscape has radically changed and there is, therefore, no doubting the need for review of the Act of 2000. Over the years, numerous amendments have been made to meet the challenges that have arisen. Most importantly, aspects of the system have become misaligned, which creates uncertainty and undermines consistency. The Bill will enhance clarity, improve consistency and increase confidence in the planning system through the alignment of national, regional and local tiers of planning and by refocusing the public debate and participation towards the plan-making stage. It also refines many of the processes, parameters and timelines of the current planning system.

The national planning framework will continue to spearhead the planning agenda and, importantly, the Bill proposes a plan-led system and structure whereby all tiers of planning, from regional to local, align with the strategic objectives set out in the national planning framework. This is a key tenet of the Bill and ensures consistency for all users of the planning system. Put simply, lower order plans will be required to align with higher order plans, with development plans aligned to regional strategies and, in turn, to the national planning framework and the national planning statements, and with the area-based plans aligned to development plans.

National planning statements will replace ministerial guidelines. These statements will be approved by Government and will be subject to broad consultation. To ensure consistency in a timely manner, the Bill contains a process of reviewing development plans and regional spatial economic strategies when new planning statements are introduced to make sure the system remains in alignment. Development plans will have a ten-year lifespan rather than the current six-year lifespan and will be more strategic in nature. An interim review of the development plan will occur at year five in order to take account of the wider changes since the plan was prepared and to allow for update, if required. This will provide more up-to-date and strategic plans, providing greater certainty that there is sufficient zoned land available at all times to align with the needs of the housing and economic development and, again, providing greater certainty over a longer period for all stakeholders.

The ten-year cycle, with five-year reviews, will mean that every elected member will be involved, at a minimum, in either the making of the development plan or the interim review. More importantly, the extended plans allow for longer periods of implementation rather than the present situation where more than a third of the life cycle of a development plan is consumed by preparing the plan. Local area plans will be replaced by specific types of area-based plans, to better enable planning authority objectives to be prioritised, rather than simply being mandatory in nature and drawing resources where they are not always most needed.

There will be a clearer distinction between different categories of consents and more importantly, statutory time periods will be introduced for decision-making for all consent processes, including, for the first time, for an coimisiún pleanála. This will bring increased certainty to the planning consent process for both the public and stakeholders involved in the delivery of key infrastructure such as housing and renewable energy.

The headline periods for an coimisiún pleanála will range from 18 weeks for appeals of decisions of planning authorities to 48 weeks for large-scale strategic infrastructure development. The varying timelines reflect the differing complexities of applications dealt with by the commission. There will also be a system of proportionately escalating measures in place if the commission does not make decisions within the mandatory time limits.

There is a range of crucial reforms to the judicial review of planning cases. There is an important role for judicial review, and this role is maintained and protected in the Bill. However, the number of cases has grown significantly and in a manner that is delaying delivery of housing and critical infrastructure such as wind energy and housing delivery. By moving to a more truly plan-led system and ensuring a greater consistency of approach with regard to planning policy, it is intended that this will reduce the scope for material contravention of plans and policies in subsequent decision-making. It is envisaged that, in time, this Bill and the reforms contained therein will result in fewer instances where judicial review is necessitated.

The processes and parameters of judicial review such as sufficient interest - standing rights - and provisions relating to the grounds for such challenges have been reviewed. Applicants will no longer need to apply to the High Court for leave to take a case, saving time and cutting expense while improving access to justice. Unincorporated organisations, such as residents’ associations, will be able to take a judicial review. Environmental non-governmental organisations will still enjoy a privileged status, aligned to our commitments under the Aarhus Convention, subject to certain criteria. Importantly, the Bill also introduces provisions relating to the costs associated with judicial reviews to ensure they are not prohibitively expensive. Again, this is an improvement aligned to our commitments under the Aarhus Convention.

There will be a scale of fees for all planning-related judicial reviews as well as an environmental legal costs financial assistance mechanism. This will enable an unsuccessful judicial review applicant to apply to the mechanism for a contribution to their costs, depending on their circumstances. This will improve access to justice by removing a significant cost barrier in what is acknowledged to be a very high-cost legal environment.

There will be a new organisational structure for An Bord Pleanála, which will be renamed an coimisiún pleanála with three central pillars. First is the planning commissioners, who will be responsible for all decision-making regarding appeals and applications made to an coimisiún pleanála under the new Bill. Second is the separate corporate structure, which will be led by a CEO and a strengthened management team, and which will undertake all organisational and technical functions to support the core decision-making role. Third is the governing body, which will be responsible for the governance and performance of the organisation.

The Government is already backing these reforms with resources to match its ambition. Since October 2021, 117 new staffing posts for An Bord Pleanála have been agreed. When all the approved posts are filled, over 300 people will be employed by the board. This will represent an increase in the overall agreed staffing at An Bord Pleanála of in excess of 50% since 2021. A permanent chairperson was appointed by the Government in January and a recruitment process for board members recently concluded. It is expected that appointments will be made from this panel shortly.

I am also preparing a ministerial action plan to look at the resourcing of the wider sector. The plan will set out a series of actions to be delivered on by stakeholders. In addition to the need for increased resourcing of public sector planning services and matters relating to the recruitment and retention of staff, there is also a need to develop educational and training initiatives to increase the availability of personnel with the necessary skills and expertise in planning and related professions across the public and private sectors.

Finally, the new Bill provides for urban development zones, UDZs, to replace strategic development zones, SDZs. This will facilitate the identification of areas with potential for significant development, including housing, in order to ensure the opportunities can be maximised and development can take place in a timely manner. There will be fast-track planning in accordance with the approved scheme. The UDZ designation will be applicable to large-scale areas in single or multiple land ownership that could include public and-or private lands and transport-led development areas, and are intended to be a focus for State investment to ensure development, including housing delivery at scale, can be progressed. As I mentioned at the outset, we have listened intently to all quarters throughout this three-year process. For example, during the nine-week pre-legislative scrutiny process, a wide range of views and submissions on the draft Bill was heard from a variety of groups and bodies. This resulted in the production of the Oireachtas joint committee report on pre-legislative scrutiny, which included a list of over 150 recommendations. After in-depth and careful consideration, two thirds of these recommendations were fully or partially adopted with the remainder adjudged to be outside the scope of the Bill. Likewise, throughout Committee and Report Stages in the Dáil, wherever changes were merited, we took them away for consideration and inclusion.

I will not go through every change made on foot of these processes but I would like to take a moment to highlight some key changes made on foot of input from elected Members. All references to the national biodiversity action plan and the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act 2021 have been reviewed and adherence to these has been strengthened. The Bill defines and includes community gardens for the first time. A bespoke category of priority area plan for the Gaeltacht and the islands has been created and consultation with Irish language bodies has been reviewed and improved. There will be a pause on planning permissions that are subject to judicial review so that such permissions do not lose time while such cases take place. The Bill deals with spurious planning submissions and appeals. Submissions on planning applications, appeals of applications and judicial reviews must be accompanied by a statutory declaration stating that they are not being undertaken for the purposes of delaying a development or for receiving a payment. A declaration must also be made when withdrawing a submission, appeal or judicial review. There will also be a ban on requesting payment for not opposing a development. These are a sample of the refinements that been made on foot of the record level of debate that has taken place in scrutinising this Bill to date.

I intend to bring forward a number of technical and drafting amendments on Committee Stage. While the Bill is virtually complete from a policy perspective, I will also bring amendments on Report Stage, most of which will also be of a technical nature. In particular, I will be bringing forward amendments to make consequential amendments to other legislation that references the Planning and Development Act. These will include, for example, amendments to roads, railway and maritime area planning Acts. There are over 500 references to the current Act on the Statute Book and these must be updated. I also intend to introduce revised governance procedures for the Office of the Planning Regulator.

I will now outline the main provisions of the Bill. It consists of 23 Parts and six Schedules. In the interests of time, I will actually skip that phase. I am sure those Parts and Schedules will be discussed at length during the Bill's time before the House.

The Bill is the third largest piece of legislation in the history of the State. It marks the biggest overhaul of our planning laws in almost a quarter of a century and will make our system fit for purpose for the foreseeable future. At its core, the Bill is centred on achieving clarity, certainty and consistency in our planning system. The Bill’s scale and complexity have been matched by the levels of stakeholder, pre-legislative and Dáil scrutiny undertaken to date. This is in addition to the work undertaken by the Office of the Attorney General, the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel, a wide range of Government Departments and my own officials over the past three years, each of which shares the common goal of delivering the best possible planning system for our country. As demonstrated time and again throughout this process, I will listen intently to the debate here in the Seanad and to the proposals of the House and will seek to respond to any specific questions and engage further on Committee Stage. I commend the Bill to the House.