Darragh O'Brien: Our planning laws must keep pace with change
Minister for Housing Darragh O'Brien: 'As the new planning legislation moves through the committee stage, Opposition hypocrisy is evident. With one side of their mouth, they decry the housing emergency while with the other they seek to delay this critical legislation at every juncture.' File photo: Gareth Chaney/ Collins Photos
At the turn of the century when the last major Planning Bill was being debated, Ireland was a different place.
The population was just 3.8 million people. You could buy a pint of Guinness for three punts and Tony Cascarino was escorted off the pitch by riot police after a heated end to a European Championship match.
A lot has changed since then — but not everything. Unfortunately, some of our laws are still stuck in that past and we urgently need them to keep pace with change and stay relevant.
Nowhere is this more important than in planning and developing new homes and vital infrastructure.
Planning law is complex, as is the reform of planning law. However, our new 700-page Planning and Development Bill will bring the changes that this country needs.
We have approached the complexity of modernising planning legislation with great care and consideration — building on a 15-month review of planning legislation by the former Attorney General Paul Gallagher and a team of legal planners which began in 2021.
The Government approved the draft Bill in December 2022, it was published in January 2023 and underwent widespread consultation. A revised bill was approved by Government in September 2023 with this updated version published in November 2023.
The second stage of the bill concluded before Christmas and the bill entered its 55th hour in committee this week. With this scale of engagement, the question I have for those who are complaining that the bill is rushed is, what do they consider slow?
Over the almost four years that I’ve been Housing Minister, the general consensus from homebuilders and homeowners, planners and experts, is that we need to reform our planning system.
From the outset, I knew this task would be a significant one, and that the drafting of a bill that would encompass some 25 years of legislative amendments would take time. I didn’t wait for this process to conclude to make necessary changes within the system.
I have already abolished the highly unpopular Strategic Housing Development (SHD) process. I have also reconstituted and significantly resourced An Bord Pleanála.
As a Government, we moved forward with these changes and they are having a positive effect resulting in record numbers of commencements and completions.
As the new planning legislation moves through the committee stage, Opposition hypocrisy is evident. With one side of their mouth, they decry the housing emergency while with the other they seek to delay this critical legislation at every juncture.
They cannot have it both ways. This week we saw Opposition members write to the Committee Chair seeking to curtail time for pre-legislative scrutiny. They also voted against the scheduling of additional sessions.
These are the same members who regularly lament the very issues with our planning system that this bill is seeking to address.
The obstructiveness that has emerged as we near completion of this key legislation serves only to delay the reforms necessary to progress with the acceleration of delivery of key infrastructure in crucial areas such as our energy independence and housing delivery.
And make no mistake, this is very deliberate obstructiveness.
In the whole of 2023, the select committee on housing had approximately 60 divisions called in total, yet there have been approximately 90 divisions to date on Planning Bill.
The Planning and Development Bill will, when enacted, bring greater consistency, clarity, and certainty to the planning system for everyone who uses it.
It will improve our ability as a State to implement major programmes, including the National Development Plan, as well as improve Ireland’s national competitiveness.
The fact that the bill impacts on so many areas, from housing to roads; from renewable energy to environmental and architectural conservation means that it is critical everyone works together to ensure this cornerstone legislation proceeds through the Houses of Oireachtas so it can underpin Ireland’s continued growth and prosperity for the coming decades.
Ireland has changed dramatically over the past 25 years. We must deliver the planning legislation a 21st-century Ireland needs.
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