Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

There are experts running around Dún Laoghaire trying to find bats and putting up microphones to see if they can hear bats in any part of Dún Laoghaire in order to object to planning applications and to foot-trip the planning process. There are people who have made money out of objections to planning developments in which they have no real legitimate interest. I accept that all of this needs to be addressed but I will finish on this point. I put down all these amendments and I will not keep speaking on them. They are there and once is enough to move them in principle. I believe the Office of the Planning Regulator is an overly powerful and overly prescriptive agency, as are the powers we are giving to Ministers through their statements.

The particular provision I find most offensive is that this person is supposed to be independent in his or her discharge of the office's functions but that he or she is obliged by statute under section 504 to have regard to the policies and objectives for the time being of the Government, including, but not limited to, national planning statements. Any policy is something which the Office of the Planning Regulator is required to have regard to. It goes on to mention the policies of local authorities but why are we elevating the Government's policy to such a height that the agency that decides whether particular provisions are or are not consistent with national planning strategies or regional planning strategies or whether county development plans are or are not in conformity with them or whether individual planning decisions are in conformity with them is to decide by reference to something as loose as Government policy? That in my view is radically opposed to the principle of the Council of Europe's guarantees for the autonomy of local government.I did not have an opportunity on Second Stage to speak on the matter and I tabled all these amendments as an opportunity on which I could make that point. The time has come to loosen controls in Ireland and to say to Galway County Council it should allow more one-off housing if that is what it thinks is necessary. It does not really matter if the OPR in Dublin thinks that one-off housing in Galway and Wicklow are two very different things and could have diametrically differing effects. One might be a good thing and one might be a bad thing. The time has come for us to respect local democracy more and give local authority members real control over what they are doing and the right to determine the shape of the communities they want to create, without this massive supervision and set of constraints. It is a serious overreaction to what the Flood tribunal uncovered in respect of planning issues, particularly in the Dublin area. Some day somebody will ask how we got here. Unfortunately, this massive Bill which we have to consider in fairly tight parliamentary time constraints represents a decisive step in the wrong direction.