I move amendment No. 3:
In page 4, between lines 25 and 26, to insert the following:
"`publication' means a notice published in a newspaper which has general circulation in the area of the proposed development.".
Like Deputy Howlin, I am anxious that we proceed to deal with those sections of the Bill with which we did not deal on Committee Stage. The House will recall that on Committee Stage Members on this side of the House were most unhappy that a guillotine was introduced which resulted in our dealing with only two of the 22 sections in the Bill.
Having re-read the Bill in the intervening period in preparation for Report Stage, I have to confess that it has not grown on me. I remain adamant that this Bill is horrific legislation which will greatly limit the rights of the public in the making of planning appeals and will tilt the balance of advantage in the area of planning appeals in favour of the developer to the disadvantage of third parties which includes individual citizens and local communities.
My amendment was discussed on Committee Stage. On that occasion the Minister accepted that there was a difficulty in relation to the formula in the Bill for the notification of planning decisions, particularly to third parties, and the period of time allowed for people to put in appeals. The Bill provides that in the case of the planning applicant there will be a period of one month from the date on which the applicant receives notification of the decision and in the case of a third party there will be a period of one month running from the date on which the decision is made by the planning authority, in other words the planning decision.
I note that the Minister has tabled an amendment which proposes that the same one month period should apply in the case of the applicant as in the case of any other party; in other words, it would run from the date on which the planning decision is made by the planning authority. While this would be an improvement, it does not deal with the situation whereby many members of the public may not be aware that a planning decision has been made. The normal method for notifying the public of a planning decision is through the publication by the local authority of planning lists which are circulated through the post to members of local authorities and residents' associations who have requested that they be sent to them. The first problem which may arise is a delay in the issuing of the planning lists. On Committee Stage I instanced complaints which had been made by, for example, An Taisce, who point out that in the case of some local authorities it can take two or three weeks after the planning decision is made before the planning lists are circulated. This effectively leaves only a period of about one or two weeks within which the resident's associations or individual citizens can make their appeal. Under the provisions of the Bill, they will be required to state the full terms of their appeal. That period of time is clearly too short.
It is probably appropriate in the middle of a postal strike to point out that if this Bill were already in force the reality is that people would not be in a position to know whether a planning decision had been made as the entire system is dependent on the postal system. I am proposing in my amendment that that system be replaced by a system which would require the local authority to publish in a newspaper circulated in their area a notice listing the planning decisions they have made. There is precedent for this. In the first case, the planning applicant has to advertise in a newspaper giving notice of his intention to make a planning application.
Local authorities, for a variety of reasons, regularly use public notices to inform the public about some course of action they propose to take. For example, if the local authority have to carry out essential repair work on water supplies or some other essential service, it is normal that they place a public notice either in the local newspaper circulating in the area or, in some cases, in the national newspaper to notify the public of what they are doing. I am proposing that the local authority be required to publish in the local newspapers a list of the planning decisions made so that the public will know that decisions have been made and will not be dependent on the archaic system whereby notices are posted on a small noticeboard outside the offices of the planning authority or dependent on the postal service which, as we know at present, to our cost, does not always function or perhaps in which notices may get lost.
This legislation provides very restricted means by which people can make their appeal to An Bord Pleanála. The appeal, together with a full statement, must be received within a month and people will not be allowed to add to that subsequently. If they miss the month deadline there is no provision whereby they can have a second chance to appeal.
The problem arises in that members of the public and residents' associations in particular may not know that a planning decision has been made and, therefore, may not be in a position to make an appeal to An Bord Pleanála. We cannot rely on the system that operates at present whereby, first, planning lists are often delayed in being issued, second, they may be delayed in the post and, third, members of the public may not see the notices. The only way to avoid that is to require the planning authority to publish notices in the newspaper. If we are to have a planning appeals system which is very restrictive, allowing very little time for people to appeal, and which will not allow the public an opportunity of a second chance to appeal, at the very least there should be a very open and transparent system of notification that a planning decision has been made.