Green Party leader John Gormley has promised to engage with other political parties to reform the political system.
Opening the Green Party weekend convention in Waterford tonight he said that there has been debate about the need for political reform with new proposals from other political parties, which he welcomed.
“For a long time the Greens were a lone voice in advocating major reforms of how we govern ourselves here in Ireland. I look forward to engaging with all political parties on how best to reform our political system, to make it work better for our citizens,” he said.
Mr Gormley added that the commitment of other parties to reform should be judged not by their words but by their deeds.
“Our councils are the foundations of our political system. It is where many of us cut our political teeth. I have the utmost respect for most of local councillors across the country".
“That said, despite all that we have been through, the ghost estates, the unfinished office blocks and the deserted retail parks – all of which resulted from bad planning – some councillors are still engaging in crony capitalism. With business as usual in our council chambers, the noble words on reform and accountability by some political party leaders ring hollow,” he said.
Mr Gormley added that in the last month there was an attempt by some councillors to assist a developer in re-zoning a swathe of land for a supermarket beside a motorway in South county Dublin.
“A thin veneer of job creation claims are now being used to mask questionable rezoning motions. But let me be very clear about this. This type of developer-led planning, the type that got us into this current mess, does not create jobs. It costs. It costs the environment, it costs taxpayers money and it costs jobs".
“In this the South Dublin case, years of planning to create a new town centre in South Dublin, and €350 million of public and private investment into a new Luas line would have been undermined because one developer had other ideas and land elsewhere,” he said.
The Minister for Environment added that it was no surprise that the planning bill, which seeks to end the crony capitalism approach to planning, but which still leaves zoning power in the hands of councillors, had been opposed tooth and nail by some opposition politicians.
“A good planning system is an essential for economic recovery, to make sure we build the right things in the right places, where we put people before property developers, for once".
“And we have a champion of this people-first approach. A champion who is now a Government minister, my colleague Ciarán Cuffe. As I have said, one of the many responsibilities Ciarán is taking on as Minister for State is the issue of planning.”
