Patricia Stephenson (Social Democrats)

I am really concerned about the latest amendments to the Planning and Development Act, which further entrench a developer and investor-first approach to our already incredibly shambolic and failed planning system. The 2024 Act has still not been fundamentally implemented and yet here we are pushing through amendments to that Act without any pre-legislative scrutiny. I find that really troubling. The same thing happened with the 2024 Act. That Act's errors are obvious here and I am quite sure there will be many more to come.

The amendments fail to address the root causes of delays in housing and infrastructure delivery. These amendments include new rules on pre-commencement extensions, judicial reviews, time suspensions and the safeguarding of expiring permissions, reflecting a narrow and misleading analysis of Ireland's planning challenges. For the first time, developers will now be able to seek extensions to their planning permissions before any development has even commenced. This fundamentally changes the nature of time-limited planning, which exists to ensure planning permissions reflect current policy, community needs and environmental conditions. Rather than incentivising delivery or discouraging land hoarding, these measures risk enabling speculative behaviour and stagnation. There is no requirement to demonstrate progress, public engagement or a reassessment of circumstances. This planning in reverse serves private timelines over the public interest.

The new provision to pause the clock on planning permissions during judicial reviews is being sold as some sort of practical situation to the delays we are seeing but it rests on the dangerous and very much false premise that legal challenges are the problem. Judicial reviews exist because the planning process has failed, often due to procedural errors, poor consultation or breaches of environmental law. Pausing permissions during this period does nothing to prevent bad decisions from being made in the first place. Worse still, it further scapegoats communities and campaigners who are simply exercising their legal rights under the Constitution and the Aarhus Convention.Instead of fixing a flawed planning system the Government is trying to insulate itself from the consequences of that flawed system. These changes are being framed as essential to increasing housing supply, yet there is no evidence that dormant permissions are expiring due to overregulation or litigation. Most planning permissions never go to judicial review. The real bottlenecks lie in inadequate water and wastewater infrastructure, staff shortages in the planning authorities, the governance crisis that we have seen in An Coimisiún Pleanála, and speculative land practices that delay activation, even when permission is granted.

Extending permissions and pausing judicial review clocks may tidy up the legal optics but they do not actually lay a single brick in developing new housing. They risk entrenching a system where developers are protected from delay but communities, the environment and the environmental activists are not protected from poor planning decisions. The Social Democrats believe in a planning system that is fair, transparent and focused on the common good. Reforms should be aimed at increasing housing delivery but not undermining accountability, due process, or democratic rights and constitutional rights. True reform means investing in planning capacity, fixing Uisce Éireann and restoring trust in An Coimisiún Pleanála.

These amendments do not fix the planning system. They simply shield it from the consequences of its own failings. We need legislation that prioritises integrity over expedience. We need a planning system that delivers housing and infrastructure without eroding public rights or environmental protections. I am deeply disappointed that a whole range of amendments are being brought through. It is a massive number of amendments at this stage. I hope Senators will be sufficiently briefed on those amendments before next week. It is deeply cynical and not remotely in good faith that it is being done in this way. It is bad process and we are not even going to have a Report Stage on this Bill. I want to put it on the record that I hope this is not a sign of things to come with the legislative process during this term.