Pat Casey (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Senator Duffy touched on the issue I will raise. The headline of an article in yesterday's Irish Independent, written by Fionnán Sheahan, stated that targeted zoning of land by councillors for large-scale housing will be overruled. According to the article, a Government source stated that "Local councillors and TDs can often be to the forefront in objecting to the building of houses or rezoning of land as they side with "Nimby" objectors." It gets worse. The article continues:

"You can't be limited by what a local authority wants to do on zoning. Councillors are a law unto themselves. Local authorities will have to be directed on where to zone land," a government source said.

A Government source who understood anything about how a county development plan is adopted would not make that statement. It is national policy and national legislation that prevents our councillors from zoning land and controlling the zoning of land. It was the NPF that decided what the national population growth was. It was the regional assemblies that then dictated where that population growth went into our counties. It was national policy that decided the headroom in relation to zoning of land. The quantum of land zoned in a county development plan has nothing to do with councillors but has everything to do with national policy. It is disrespectful if a Government source is now trying to blame councillors and county councils for not having the prerequisite zoned land in place. In every one of the counties I visited in respect of the previous plans, every one of the councillors made proposals for the zoning of land. It was national policy and the Office of the Planning Regulator that prevented all those lands being zoned. It was because of national policy. To come now and try to blame councillors and county council officials for not being proactive in land zoning is completely disrespectful.