Oversight and accountability
Sir, – The controversy that has broken out over the Dublin city centre transport plan should serve as a wake-up call on the risks posed by extraordinary new and undemocratic powers in the new Planning and Development Bill 2023 before the Seanad next week.Let’s not make the ill-conceived Dublin traffic plan the subject of a culture war
The Office of the Planning Regulator will also have a profoundly powerful role in determining how regional spatial strategies and development plans conform to the diktats of the Minister and Government. Alarmingly, the Office of the Planning Regulator can suspend and neutralise elements of a development plan – effectively indefinitely.
Too often the effect on local areas will be realised too late to challenge their lawfulness. Under the Bill’s new rules on judicial review, citizens and councils will have just eight weeks to mount legal challenges against the Government or Minister when exercising these powers, and the Bill’s changes on legal costs rules create significant financial burdens, including for councils.
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