I thank Senator Murphy. I now call the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, who is no stranger to the House at this stage. She is very welcome.

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. He has a difficult task because he has come to this Chamber not once but twice to convey I do not know what to this House. I submitted a Commencement matter relating to scoliosis on 19 October in the hope the Minister would come to the House. I printed it off earlier because I wanted to read it again. Of course, the Minister could not come to the House. He is a busy man, and I appreciate that. The Minister of State, Deputy Feighan, came to the House instead and the same…

I thank the Deputy Leader for setting out the Order of Business. I also thank the Cathaoirleach, the Seanad staff and the staff of the Oireachtas for facilitating a very late debate in the Seanad. We will not sit until 1.15 a.m. tomorrow but we did so yesterday to deal with important legislation, the Planning and Development (Amendment) (Large-scale Residential Development) Bill. It was a good debate, which there is no point in revisiting now. We move on and we will have other opportunities next week. I acknowledge…

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I thank the Cathaoirleach for agreeing to the taking of this Commencement matter today. This issue relates to the proposals for the State's response to illegal birth registrations in Ireland. There are many complexities and issues with respect to children in care but this issue is specifically focused on illegal birth registrations in Ireland. We know a report has been compiled by Professor Conor O'Mahony. It has been sitting on the Minister's desk for approximately six…

I thank the Minister of State for her report. I do not doubt the commitment of the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, to it, but the time is up. It has gone on for too long. There comes a point when people want the information. It is about their identity and contacts. There are many people at a great age now, who will not be around for much longer, and they need support. The more we tell them about new Bills and legislation, the further away it seems. I understand the Minister of State has a job to do. I too have a job to …

I also wish to raise an issue on healthcare. I was thinking earlier how we are always asking for the Minister for Health. As I was leaving the Chamber earlier, he was in the anteroom and I thought about how when we want him, we cannot get him. However, he may have been there on other business. No one who listened to "Drivetime" on RTÉ radio yesterday evening could have failed to have been moved by the harrowing stories of the nurses and doctors, but particularly those of the nurses who spoke. I was shattered to hea…

I move amendment No. 7: In page 6, between lines 1 and 2, to insert the following: “(e) a statement setting out how the proposal will be consistent with the objectives of the relevant development plan or local area,”. I welcome the Minister to the House. When I reflect back to when the Minister and myself were members of the Oireachtas joint committee on housing, I recalled we talked about strategic housing developments SHDs and all the anomalies there were in those. I genuinely welcome many of the initiatives in t…

I thank the Minister for his response in regard to amendment No. 7. I understand Report Stage has been postponed until next week, which means we have a little more time to work on a revised amendment. I thank the Minister for listening and responding. During the debate there was some suggestion that all applications are consistent. We know that not all applications are consistent with county development plans. I thank the Minister for taking on board the spirit of the amendment. Hopefully, going forward, we can com…

I withdraw the amendment with the right to re-enter it.

I move amendment No. 15: In page 7, between lines 13 and 14, to insert the following: “(4) The planning authority shall ensure that the elected members of the Local Authority, Area Committee or Area Committees (established under section 50(1) of the Local Government Act 2001) or municipal district in respect of the area or areas concerned, in which the proposed large-scale residential development would be situated are notified of the LRD meeting and provided with a copy of the documents set out in 32B(2).”. I will …

It would not be correct or fair of me to try to anticipate what the Minister is going to say. I do not propose to do that. Instead, I will read into the record a letter dated September 2021 to the Minister of State with responsibility for planning and local government, Deputy Burke. It states: Dear Minister, I have been asked by the AILG to respond to your Department's recent publication of the General Scheme of the Planning and Development (Amendment)(LSRD) Bill 2021. The Association broadly welcomes this measure …

I hear what the Minister is saying but I do not agree with him. He has more or less the same officials in his Department as were there under the previous Administration. We heard all this previously with the strategic housing development process. They made a great glowing impression on us that the strategic housing development systems would involve power for the councils and that there would be meetings. It was to be brilliant, they were all going to have engagement, the public would be looking in on the process an…

I advise the Minister the councillors engaged with the process. He is not councillor and neither am I. It is no big deal for councillors to be informed of planning. It is a statutory obligation of the planning authority to notify everybody of a planning application. There are planning listings. The planning authorities have that statutory obligation. That is nothing new. It was always the case.

I am not arguing with anybody. I am just making the point. My understanding is that it was always the case. I receive a list of planning from my planning authority every Thursday. I receive it every single week as a citizen. It has nothing to do with my status as a politician and I see all the planning applications. It is about public participation and engagement. This is critically important. The Minister has a different view from me. That is fair enough and I respect that. This issue is important. I will pursue b…

I want to be clear because as we talk here, others are listening outside. Amendments Nos. 15 and 16 are in response to the AILG and LAMA request of myself and our group. They seek to put in place a guarantee that there will be a meeting in public of the council or the municipal authority or the area committee of which an LRD, this application, will be discussed, at which a planner will be there to take the elected members through the proposal. The elected members will be able to set out on the public record their v…

I move amendment No. 16: In page 7, after line 42, to insert the following: “(2)The planning authority shall include in its LRD opinion a summary of the views of the relevant elected members on that proposed development as expressed at any meetings of each Area Committee concerned, or of the municipal district members for each municipal district concerned, as appropriate.”.

This is an important amendment. Where I have advocated strongly for city and county councillors, I now do so for planners. I have spoken to planners up and down the country who are very concerned about this proposal. We are dealing, in principle, with primary legislation. I do not know why everything has to be done by regulation. This Bill is setting things out clearly and there are concerns. The Minister spoke, and rightly so, about the importance of the process being planning led at a local level with local knowl…

I am very concerned about section 6 and would have thought it would have been opposed. It raises very serious issues. I do not want to keep harping back to the SHDs but the Minister should consider the number of cases people in his constituency - I am familiar with a number of them - took to An Bord Pleanála at great personal expense and risk. The Minister talked about local authorities and organs of the State. They have substantial sums of money, although it is ultimately the taxpayer's money. I have seen cases wh…

I know he knows. I heard the other day that the Minister gets everything done, and that is great, but-----

I know, and is the Minister not very privileged to be in that position? I am privileged to be in the position to talk to him.