A new planning system may be required to remove the need for planning permission for every development, the Fine Gael leader, Mr John Bruton, said yesterday.
He told a seminar in Kilkenny that planners were now reduced to being "gatekeepers" who could only say no to developments and were too busy dealing with individual applications to enforce their decisions.
A new approach might be needed where planners made blueprints and developers acted within the parameters. "Planners should be planners, not stoppers, as they are at the moment. They should be envisaging the future and making the future happen, rather than acting as gatekeepers to progress."
However, Mr Bruton was challenged by Ms Una Hughes, of Kilkenny Archaeological Society, who said there were occasions when planners should say no and "unfortunately, it's not happening in Kilkenny". She said there was a great need for a city architect who would ensure that planning laws were enforced and protect Kilkenny's historic buildings.
The seminar was organised by Fine Gael which has earmarked Kilkenny as one of eight "new cities" to be developed as growth centres by the party in government. The others are Letterkenny, Sligo, Castlebar, Athlone, Tralee, Portlaoise and Dundalk.
Mr Bruton said the eight must be developed as growth centres "because we can't simply spread people out over vast areas of the countryside, ignoring the implications that that has for traffic and for accessibility.
"I think we've got to find a model of high-density living that is socially desirable . . . The essence of a city is variety. The essence of country life is calm. Now, if people really wanted calm as badly as they're supposed to want it, there wouldn't be a flight from the land; people would stay on the land.
"They may like the idea of calm when they get up in the morning and the birds are singing, but really most people would want to be living where there's throbbing nightlife . . . exciting places to visit and where there is choice; there is theatre, there are third-level education opportunities, there are cyber-cafes, there are all those things that make life interesting and varied within walking distance."
Hotelier Mr Liam Griffin told the seminar that any development models for Kilkenny would have to have balance, which previous plans did not. "I don't want to see Kilkenny infested with tourists, even if it is good for my business."
Many speakers said Kilkenny was not realising its potential because of a lack of adequate road and rail infrastructure and because there was no third-level education institution in the city.
Mr Brian Kiely, of Kidco, a private-public partnership set up to attract inward investment to Kilkenny, said even potential US investors were not impressed to know that there were third-level facilities in nearby centres such as Waterford and Carlow.
Prof Vincent Comerford, of NUI Maynooth said while he would be delighted to see such a development, Kilkenny would have to decide what kind of institution it needed and how it would fit into the modern world.
