Planning regulator rejects TD's 'Stalinist' jibe 

Independent TD Verona Murphy accused the Office of the Planning Regulator of 'Stalinist' policies, a charge flatly rejected by the body's chief executive Niall Cussen. Picture: Gareth Chaney/Collins

The head of Ireland’s planning regulator has dismissed as “unhelpful and inaccurate” accusations suggesting its approach is “an assault on rural democracy”.

Niall Cussen, chief executive of the Office of the Planning Regulator, said such accusations seem to be “harking back to a previous and darker era of planning in this country”.

The OPR, which was first established in 2019 as an overseer of decisions made by both An Bord Pleanála and the local planning authorities, had been accused last month by independent Wexford TD Verona Murphy of endorsing a “Karl Marx policy” of forcing people to live in high-density settings.

Ms Murphy had described as “Stalinist” the OPR’s decision to reject the Co Wexford Development Plan.

Addressing the Oireachtas Housing Committee, Mr Cussen said the OPR encourages a plan-led approach to rural development aimed specifically at the “renewal of many smaller towns and villages facing a very uncertain future”.

Ongoing housing crisis

Regarding the ongoing housing crisis, Mr Cussen said “there are challenges ahead in terms of delivering housing at the levels, quality and affordability needed in our city and town cores”.

He suggested it was important that local authorities had “done their homework” in terms of development plans, and that they did not amount to “flights of fancy… an approach of ‘if we build them they will come’”.

“We are the backstop in terms of making sure that homework is done,” he said, adding the Government had committed €116bn towards realising planning frameworks.

“That’s a serious investment,” he said. "People need homes. 

“For various reasons, it is challenging to deliver them in a way that people can afford to buy or rent them once you get closer to city and town cores.”

Nevertheless, he said all planning “needs to be mindful of the needs of the existing community”.

'Enormous challenge'

He said 2020 had been a year of “enormous challenge” for the planning regulator due to the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, but the challenges posed “were not only met but overcome”.

Mr Cussen said across 2020 the vast majority of the regulator’s recommendations were implemented by local authorities, with only one recommendation in that 12-month period having to be enforced by the department.

He also promised to take a “close look” at the issue of planning applications by developers being taken offline once permission has been granted, after the issue was raised by Social Democrat TD Cian O’Callaghan.

“The paper file is already there, so it’s duplication, but it’s a very interesting point,” he said.