Ireland’s planning regime is not serving the public good in important respects, in particular through the apparent impossibility of proceeding in a reasonable timescale with vital national projects. The Government has recognised this and implicitly acknowledged that the Planning and Development Act, passed in the dying days of the previous administration, will not fix some of the key problems. Plans for further legislation have been mooted and Minister for Public Expenditure, Jack Chambers, has appointed a taskforce to advise on accelerating infrastructure delivery.
The time has come for the Government to act . A key job is to underline the importance of speeding up major projects, both in terms of cost and national and social development. The public must be persuaded that a rebalancing is needed which gives greater weight to the wider national interest, particularly in relation to key projects in areas such as energy, water and transport.
This would not close off making reasonable objections. But it does mean ensuring that those seeking judicial reviews are doing so on a reasonable basis and that findings of procedural failure do not inevitably mean a project must effectively restart. The prevalence of these reviews had led to an unreasonable level of risk aversion in the planning system and in public administration.
Judicial reviews were designed as a way of challenging the means through which a public body reached a decision. And the opaque nature of much of the Irish public service means they can serve a useful function. But in more recent years planning legislation was complicated by new EU laws – and the Irish interpretation of these, meaning complexity has increased and the use of judicial reviews has soared. They have morphed into a catch-all route for objectors and a cash cow for areas of the legal profession.
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Rebalancing to give greater weight to the public good will not be easy. The Planning and Development Act has still to be enacted in full. And Minister for Justice, Jim O’Callaghan, has also proposed new legislation. The Government needs to bring all this together and the report of the taskforce on accelerating infrastructure – due shortly – gives an opportunity to do so.
Focus is vital. It will take time to unpick the mire that is the Irish planning and administrative system and improve its functioning. But the first step needs to be improving the delivery of vital projects. Public support for this can be won over, but it will require effort not only from Government but also from the key players responsible for delivery in the public sector. They need to clearly communicate the vital role such investments can have and the costs of endless delay.
If the big projects are not delivered, then Ireland’s target in housing and climate will appear ever more challenging than they already do. There can hardly be a better incentive to act.
