Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I know that and as the Senator is aware, I am talking about the amendment in section 1. I want to make the point that having done all of these things, we are now putting and cementing in place this rigid regime of control over local authority members. It is entirely wrong. The illusion of local democracy is entirely exposed by the Office of the Planning Regulator. That Department, in choosing to create this mechanism whereby it effectively can challenge its own Minister to either put up or shut up by putting a motion down before both Houses, is inherently undemocratic. There are political issues to be decided. There are areas of political responsibility. It is not some kind of science which only yields one result. There is a great need for genuine democracy in this area.

The last thing I want to say on this amendment at this point, as my colleague will be glad to hear, is that we trust local authority members to the minimum extent possible with any discretionary powers. The members of any local authority in England are given some input into how planning decisions in their areas are dealt with. Here, they are prohibited from deciding except through the development plan. Even when they seek to enforce that, they are limited hugely. Do we believe in local democracy? I do not think we do. We believe in local administration. We give an extremely limited set of rights to locally elected councillors that are not adequate to defend the interests of the community. They involve imposing criteria and guidelines on local authorities regionally and individually that are frequently out of date in terms of what is happening to our population. More importantly, it is a one-size-fits-all approach to planning right across the country.

On all of those grounds, I am happy to second amendment No. 1.