Paddy Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It seems that the Planning Regulator has a huge role in these plans. When one takes the regional assemblies into account and the plans they bring forward in the making of their own regional and economic strategies, it seems to me from my reading of this Bill, which is quite complex and complicated, that the Planning Regulator feeds into the regional assembly and that is what then feeds down into county development plans, and shapes them and what one can do at local authority level.

It is proposed to allow a county development plan to be extended to anything from seven to ten years, which is a huge length of time. If one goes back over ten years, one will see that we have had very significant changes, for example with regard to electric cars, batteries and charging points. One could make a plan today for the next ten years and before that period elapses, the issue may not be cars but might be small aeroplanes that people may be flying, or whatever. Technology is changing fast, which means that ten years for a county development plan is a very significant length of time. I agree with the previous speakers that it certainly should not be any more than ten years.

I agree with the proposal that local authority members might have the power to bring forward variations. They do not have that power at present, however. It is at the behest of the manager that a variation is brought forward, or not if the manager does not see fit. He or she is basically controlled in many cases by the Planning Regulator. If he or she does not bring forward a variation of a plan, then it will not be brought forward. The local authority members, therefore, have no power at all. The only power they have is to agree or adopt a variation of the plan and that is my interpretation of it. The Minister of State might clarify that point.

When one reads the entirety of the Bill and one takes a number of the sections into account, one sees that the Planning Regulator has all of the power. On a rolling basis, he or she is feeding into the regional assemblies and authorities in the making of regional plans. That is what shapes the county development plans and the councillors have to take that into account. The Planning Regulator, as I said yesterday, has told us that nearly anything can be put into a county development plan but he or she, at the same time, has all of the power where he or she feeds into the regional assemblies and regional plans. That is where the power really is. I would agree with the speakers here that ten years is too long for a county development plan. There are too many changes that can happen. Technology is changing. The local authority members should have the power to bring forward variations. If land is not zoned, they should have the power to bring forward that zoning by a variation to say that houses can be built here, or that we need an extra piece of land here for industrial development, or whatever. They should have that power to do that. Otherwise, it is at the behest of the manager and that is the way it is.

The Minister of State should have a good look at this before coming back on Report Stage.