Dick Roche's proposed reforms of the planning system would seriously erode democratic participation in vital decisions that affect us all, writes Frank McDonald, Environment Editor
The measures announced yesterday by Environment Minister Dick Roche are intended to circumscribe public participation in the planning process for the biggest, and frequently most controversial, projects - motorways, incinerators, landfills, oil pipelines, power stations, electricity pylons and rail projects.
It is clear that the "fast-track" planning regime now being proposed, with a special division of An Bord Pleanála serving as a one-stop shop, will apply to anything that the Government, or even a city or county manager, deems to be of "strategic importance" - even profit-orientated schemes emanating from the private sector.
Labour Party environment spokesman Éamon Gilmore rightly suggested that the move had been designed to "cut the public out of the planning process for major infrastructure projects".
None of these projects would have to go through the planning process at local level; they would be referred directly to the appeals board.
Local authorities, including councillors, would have a right to be consulted and have their views "taken into account" - but that's all.
In addition, An Bord Pleanála would have the power to require, say, the promoters of a waste incinerator to provide direct benefits to local communities affected by major infrastructure projects.
The only other comfort given to objectors is that the Strategic Infrastructure Bill 2006 extends the rules on access to judicial reviews for environmental NGOs (non-governmental organisations), to ensure that Ireland is in compliance with its international obligations under the Aarhus Convention on Public Participation.
However, it should be noted that the 2000 Planning Act narrowed the scope for judicial review of An Bord Pleanála's decisions to points of law; in other words, the High Court could not be asked to deal with the substance of any planning case. This restrictive measure inevitably led to a significant reduction in the number of legal challenges.
Since the Act came into force, 75 applications for judicial review have been made to the High Court, representing a small fraction of the board's decisions. Of these, 24 have been adjudicated so far, with leave refused in 15 cases, six other cases decided against the board (of which five were uncontested) and three in its favour.
The Bill has been welcomed as a major step forward by the Chambers of Commerce of Ireland, which had lobbied for the changes along with Ibec, the business and employers' organisation. But Ibec's director of enterprise, Brendan Butler, said they would have to be accompanied by measures to "tackle" legal challenges to planning decisions.
Butler has repeatedly blamed the row over Carrickmines Castle and the court actions it prompted for the enormous cost of completing the final leg of the M50, which worked out at €596 million, or €42.5 million per kilometre.
This is simply untrue. In fact, only €20 million of the total bill has been officially attributed to the Carrickmines controversy.
The main reason why the motorway cost so much was that the land required for it in south Co Dublin had to be bought at staggering prices during the height of the "Celtic Tiger" boom.
And even though plaintiff Dominic Dunne lost his case, he was awarded costs because the issues he raised were "truly of general public importance".
It is ironic to note that yesterday's publication of the Strategic Infrastructure Bill coincided with the deferral - for the fourth time in 10 months - by the Supreme Court of its judgment in Dunne's action challenging the constitutionality of the 2004 National Monuments (Amendment) Act, on which the M3/Tara case also hinges.
Clearly, the Government wants to limit public scrutiny as much as possible.
Since it was re-elected in 2002, it has filleted the Freedom of Information Act, abolished Dúchas (the State Heritage Service) when it was seen to be getting in the way of "progress", and amended the National Monuments Act to give the Minister total discretion.
Dick Roche has cited the 28-day duration of the M3 motorway inquiry as evidence that this controversial project was thoroughly assessed before An Bord Pleanála approved it in August 2003. But most of it was taken up by consideration of the motorway's impact on individual landholdings, rather than the archaeological landscape around Tara.
Roche has also been fulsome in his praise for the "greatly improved performance" of the appeals board. After all, it is a fact that the board has approved every major road scheme that came before it since January 2003 - 27 in all - even, at least in one case, where the planning inspector who dealt with it recommended a refusal?
All of the inquiries into major road projects are conducted not by planners but by road engineers, usually retired from the public service and retained by the board on a consultancy basis.
According to An Taisce, they tend to treat it as "an administrative process to be gone through", rather than a serious examination of particular projects.
There is no reason to believe that this will change when An Bord Pleanála establishes a Strategic Infrastructure Division to deal with major projects, as the Government now envisages.
Deadlines for making decisions to ensure "speedy delivery" of projects are unlikely to provide time for the "robust analysis" mentioned by the Minister.
The appeals board also gave its approval to the controversial Indaver hazardous waste incinerator planned for Ringaskiddy, in Cork harbour, despite being given 14 reasons to say no by Philip Jones, the senior planning inspector who presided at a lengthy public inquiry into the project. Here again, the board put Government policy first.
So we are left with the bizarre situation of a two-tier planning process - one designed very specifically to "fast-track" motorways and other major schemes that would affect us all, with the minimum amount of input from the public, and the other for everything else, from domestic extensions to apartment blocks, office buildings and shopping centres.
As Margaret Thatcher once observed: "It's a funny old world."