I begin by acknowledging the resignation of the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, as leader of the Green Party. I wish Eamon and his family well on this momentous personal decision. I also wish Eamon’s colleagues in the Green Party well. I acknowledge his immense contribution to public service and environmentalism.

Without a functioning planning system, we have no hope of achieving our climate targets or housing targets. The Planning and Development Bill, which was heralded by the Government as the solution to chaos in the planning system, is, in its current form, incapable of resolving those problems and there is ample evidence that it will make matters worse. I know the Taoiseach and the Minister, Deputy O’Brien, want to reform the planning system. That is why I am confounded by the almost total opposition to any critique of the planning Bill, whether from the Opposition, environmentalists or the construction industry. Instead, the approach is to ram the Bill through, guillotining debate, offering just days to consider hundreds of amendments and relying on unspecified legal advice where legitimate concerns are raised.

In the Irish Examiner yesterday, Attracta Uí Bhroin of the Environmental Law Ireland group recalled the housing Minister’s commitment just in April that the planning Bill would be enacted before the summer recess “come hell or high water”. Many of us would venture that the Bill, if passed in its current form, would bring about a sort of planning hell and a flood of delays. Even though the Bill is being delayed beyond the summer, despite what the Minister said, we saw debate guillotined last week, with many amendments not reached, including my own, and it seems it will be passing through the Seanad with similar undue haste.

The Taoiseach is likely to say in response that we in opposition are always calling for faster delivery of homes and this Bill is one way to ensure that. It is true that we want to see action, we want to see delivery and we want to see the homes that our communities need being built. However, this legislation, far from facilitating more building, in our view, risks taking our beleaguered planning system and damaging it even more.

For example, I have watched the housing Minister - we all have - say time and again that the Bill is compliant with the Aarhus Convention, the international agreement that protects the right to public participation. Most recently, last week, this assertion was made more than 24 hours after the office of the Minister, Deputy Ryan, was warned by the UN's Aarhus Convention compliance committee that this was not the case, and the Bill was not compliant. Nevertheless, the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, proceeded and we saw the guillotine imposed on the debate last week. When that guillotine took effect, numerous outstanding Opposition and, indeed, Government amendments had not been debated, including my amendments, as I have said. The Government amendments, unscrutinised, were automatically incorporated into the flawed Bill, and that is really disappointing. We have seen so much work go into this massive Bill, only to see it passed in such a hasty fashion and without the opportunity to scrutinise these legitimate concerns.

Does the Taoiseach accept that the manner in which the Bill was passed through this House was reckless? Will he change tack in its process through the Seanad, and can he clarify whether the Government was on notice of the warning that the Bill was not Aarhus compliant, when assertions were made to the contrary by the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, last week?

I thank Deputy Bacik for the question and for acknowledging the role the Minister, Deputy Ryan, has played as a leader of his party. I am very conscious that he intends to continue in office, and that is a matter for the soon-to-be new leader of the Green Party in due course, but also continuing to serve his constituents in the Deputy's own constituency until the next election. He is a politician of substance and impact and I know we all understand and respect his decision.

With regard to this very important issue around planning, I accept everybody has largely engaged in good faith on this. I do not believe the Bill has been rushed though. I genuinely do not. The Deputy has indicated what some of my response is going to be already so I will not say that, in the interests of saving time. This legislation has had massive and lengthy consideration, as it should, at the Oireachtas committee.

Not in this Chamber.

The committee, chaired by Deputy Steven Matthews, who is here with us, had about 120 hours worth of hearings on Committee Stage. That is extraordinarily significant and for people watching this debate and Leaders' Questions, that is quite an unusual length of time on Committee Stage, as it should be with respect to getting this right.

The Planning and Development Bill 2023 did complete all Stages in this House, as Deputies know, on 12 June, and it will now begin its passage through Seanad Éireann. I understand it is scheduled to begin in the Seanad on 27 June. Obviously, the timing of this is a matter for the Oireachtas and I know the Seanad will want to give this issue due consideration and tease through various issues as well. We have amended the Bill to deal with spurious planning submissions and appeals. I think that is important. Statutory declarations must be submitted with all submissions or objections on planning applications, appeals and judicial reviews stating that they are not being done for the purpose of delaying a development or for receiving a payment. There is also a ban on requesting a payment for not opposing a development.

I will have to check exactly what the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, found out because I do not know the answer to the Deputy's specific question but my understanding is the Minister is aware of the draft compliance report from the Aarhus Convention compliance committee and its comments on the Bill. The Bill was drafted to ensure compliance with the convention and of course the Minister is consulting with the Attorney General on the matter. My understanding is that the Minister is satisfied that the Bill was drafted to ensure full compliance with the Aarhus Convention. Of course, there will be an opportunity to engage with the Office of the Attorney General and, no doubt, this is something that will be scrutinised further in the Seanad.

It is always a balance when it comes to legislation, and how long you give legislation. There is lots of legislation on lots of different areas waiting to get through this House. I think this Bill received a lot of time in the Dáil and a lot of time at the committee. I think it is now appropriate that it has passed the Dáil and will be considered by the Seanad.

There was extensive consideration on Committee Stage, that is absolutely right, and I commend Deputy Matthews on steering the debate there with such patience and good will. However, there was not ample time in this Chamber to debate it on Report Stage, and that is the point. More than 800 amendments were tabled on Report Stage and I think we were at about amendment No. 200-and-something when the Bill was guillotined last Wednesday night. None of my amendments were reached. Among the amendments the Labour Party put forward was one to criminalise abuse of the planning process, an amendment we were glad to see the Minister accept. However, with regard to the Minister's own amendment, which was effectively seeking to do the same thing, we had substantive points to raise. That is a really important provision. That provision alone was a criminal provision in a Bill, which had not been before the House.

It had not been before the committee at an earlier Stage. It was something which we in the Labour Party had initiated and which we did not have the chance to debate in this House. That is quite a serious matter.

As for the Aarhus Convention matter, of course we will be ventilating these matters through our Labour Party Senators, as will others, but it is simply not good enough for a Bill of this import to be rushed through at such speed, given those two significant issues, which were incapable of being debated in this House.

The honest truth is that on any legislative issue, one gets to a point where the point of disagreement is just reached. I can absolutely assure the Deputy that the Minister-----

It was not reached.

It was reached. I will explain to Deputy Howlin how the point of disagreement was reached. He has been in this House a very long time. The Minister and the Government have been listening to these issues through a whole variety of fora, through consultation, through Committee Stage-----

What about the Dáil?

The committee of the Oireachtas is not a residents' association; it is an Oireachtas committee of the Dáil. The Ceann Comhairle can clarify that is where Members of Dáil Éireann can go to tease through legislation. To be clear, the committee is of the Dáil. The only people who can attend it are Members of the Dáil.

There was a lot of time spent there. The Minister considered the issues. Amendments are tabled on Committee Stage. Quite often, members of the Opposition, as is their right, table the exact same amendment, or a variation of it, on Report Stage. At some point, the Minister, with such lengthy legislation, which is trying to modernise housing planning so we can get things moving in this country, has to decide to press go. That is what we have decided to do. We need to progress this legislation. There are people depending on it for the delivery of major infrastructural projects, renewable energy and homes for our young people. Of course, there will be a further opportunity in Seanad Éireann to consider some of these issues.