The latest proposal to “bypass” local authorities in dealing with planning applications for schemes of 150 or more new homes will, if adopted by the Government, further erode what little powers are left to local government in Ireland as well as tightening the screw yet again on public participation in the planning process.
Having already lost their functions in relation to strategic infrastructure, transport provision, health, education, water services and even waste management, councils will no longer have any role in adjudicating on large-scale housing developments in their own areas.
Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government Simon Coveney has proposed to Cabinet that such schemes would go directly to An Bord Pleanála, on the basis that a fast-track approval process is required to deal with the current housing crisis.
Apparently, it would not even be necessary for housing projects of 150 units or more to comply with local authority development plans; in other words, land would not even need to be zoned for housing for such a proposal to be considered, and even approved, by the appeals board.
This is a retrograde step, but entirely an entirely predictable one; it fits well with the traditional approach of Mr Coveney’s department, for which the hog-tying of local authorities is the default position.
Yet if the Minister really wants to know why it takes so long to get social housing schemes off the ground, he should examine the excessively bureaucratic controls exercised by his own civil servants in checking and cross-checking plans submitted for approval by local authorities and housing associations. If ever there was a case of in loco parentis, the Department of Local Government is its master practitioner in relation to dealing with such "underlings".
Repeated past pledges, notably when nearly 80 town councils were abolished by former minister Phil Hogan, that there would be substantial devolution of power to the remaining city and county councils, have proved so hollow that one former county manager asked: "What will local authorities be left to do? We don't even pick up the bins anymore."