Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will not go over what Senator Higgins has said. I first welcome the Minister here today. It is good to see him. The Minister will be aware that on this Stage, we have 775 amendments, so we are not going get through them. I am sure he has also heard the discourse, upset and anxiety of some Members of the House on that but we are where we are. This is part of form for Government. It is one of the downsides of having a mass majority in politics, in the Dáil and in the Seanad Chamber, and you can call that democracy. People will have their say. We will have other days.

I want to stay focused on this group of amendments because I am conscious that we need to get through as many of them as possible. It is interesting to look at the different parties' views on planning policy. I have it in front of me here. I did not know the Greens would be in the Chair. The planning policy of December 2023 from the Green Party talks about enhancing the role of citizens and councillors in plan-making through models of public engagement, as well as protecting and enhancing public participation and access to the justice of planning matters and to reducing the fees and the costs.None of these matters is dealt with in this Bill, which is quite interesting. The document also raises the issue of functions across planning-making decisions and talks about repealing some provisions of planning legislation to allow for central government to mandate detailed planning rules. It then, of course, refers to removing hedges as a planning requirement. Some of that did not get through the Bill and thanks be to goodness it did not. There are, though, inconsistencies across parties and clearly they were weeded out and the strongest got more of their way. The Minister is smiling, which is his style. I have no difficulty with it, so he should rest assured I am not arguing with him.

Turning to amendment No. 79, tabled by my colleague Senator McDowell and I, this relates to deleting line 30 on page 71. The amendment proposes that the Minister would not have to present a copy of the national planning statements to the Office of the Planning Regulator. While we have vented about and had some concerns about the Planning Regulator, I note that the Minister has proposals in the pipeline in terms of governance for the OPR. The Minister should focus on this because I think it has been lost a bit in the debate. I told the Minister of State yesterday that I looked at a document he was given as a briefing document when he took the post in April. In it, one of these aspects was identified as an issue of concern and somehow I think we may have got lost in this regard. In fairness to the Minister, he is on record as saying that we need to improve governance, accountability and transparency in respect of this issue. This is important.

Additionally, on the issue of the Planning Regulator, I acknowledge something contained in the Green Party's document. It refers to the Planning Regulator and makes the good suggestion that a national planning information agency be established. I think it is a good proposal. The new agency would fall within the remit of the Office of the Planning Regulator. The document continues by stating:

the Office of the Planning Regulator should be mandated to respond to requests from the public to provide information in relation to national and local planning. This would improve the standard of public observations on developments and engagement with the planning process.

This is a policy proposal from the Green Party that might be considered under the control of the OPR.

Regarding the suggestion we would delete line 30, I will wait to hear what the Minister has to say and then we will vote accordingly.