Mick Clifford: Rushing the new planning bill on a wing and a prayer is storing up problems

The bill will impact everyone in the State and the haste to get it passed into law in its current form will create problems that will persist in the long term

The last major planning act came into being in 2000 and was designed for a different country. A housing crisis and the existential threat of climate change give further major impetus to getting this right.

Cian O’Callaghan of the Social Democrats sounded perplexed, distressed even, like he just couldn’t get his head around what he was being told. 

Beside him, Sinn Féin's Eoin Ó Broin had the cut of a man who was trying to reel in his shock. The two politicians looked pretty tired as well and why wouldn’t they? The meeting they were attending had begun eight hours and 45 minutes earlier.