Carol Nolan warns of two-tier planning and registration crisis

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Planning and Development Amendment Bill 2026. There are certainly constructive and long-overdue elements within this legislation, particularly the reforms proposed around judicial reviews. For far too long, communities, local authorities and applicants have been trapped in cycles of chronic delay, delays that frequently extend into years. And we all know cases where judicial review has been used not as genuine oversight, but as a tool for procedural abuse of the courts. Anything that brings greater clarity, tighter timelines and more predictable outcomes is certainly welcome. I want to also address the multiple sections of this Bill which amend the Planning and Development Act 2000 to introduce a new planning designation for key towns. These sections, as I read it, appear to outline how certain towns will receive prioritised treatment in development plans, investment strategies and planning decision making. And while the concept may have merit in terms of balanced regional development, I must raise a very direct concern on behalf of many small towns and villages across my own county of Offaly and the wider Midlands area. We cannot allow a situation where preferential treatment for designated key towns ends up diverting resources, planning capacity or infrastructural investment away from the smaller communities, communities with populations under 10,000 that already struggle to secure basic services and development certainty. I am asking the Minister for explicit clarity. Will these sections create a two-tier planning system? Because we certainly don't want to make our planning system any more frustrating or bureaucratic or unfair than it already is. With smaller towns and villages, will they be disadvantaged in favour of the key designated towns? And what safeguards will be put in place to ensure rural communities are not left behind? Counties like Offaly depend on balanced development, not concentrated development. These sections must not become a mechanism that unintentionally sidelines rural Ireland or disadvantages rural Ireland in any way. While the Bill seeks to reduce delays in the planning processes, I must contrast that ambition with the massive and escalating backlog within Talsa Éireann, an issue that I have repeatedly exposed through parliamentary questions. We're all given an Oireachtas email to correspond with Talsa Éireann, but as far as I can see it's an absolute waste of time. I have sent in the last few weeks at least four issues to Talsa Éireann. Genuine issues concerning businesses regarding their registration, elderly people who want to sell up the property and move into a town and it's tied up in delay after delay and the stock response seems to be to get the lodging party to expedite their case. Now if a TD is already telling them the circumstances and already outlining genuine reasons regarding maybe an elderly person's well-being and health and that they want to get something finalised, their registration finalised, what's the point in them coming back again to us to tell us to go to the solicitor again? Is that not creating more of a maze and a bureaucratic mess? I'm fed up with contacting Talsa Éireann and I'm asking you Minister to intervene urgently with them because I'm not happy at all with the responses I'm getting and I feel that it's certainly a fob off and a cop out and registrations should not take three years. There's something seriously wrong if they're taking years and it's just totally unacceptable. I've several cases as I say of a business that approached me that need to expand urgently, they're tied up in this and I've several elderly constituents also tied up in this and I'm just asking for urgent intervention with Talsa Éireann because to me it seems they're not fit for purpose. The data, as I say, this bill seeks to reduce delays and I welcome that but if we're serious about reducing delays we need to improve efficiency as well and that's why I feel that certainly the reins need to be taken and action needs to be taken with Talsa Éireann. The data provided to me also confirms a rapid and exponential build-up in property registration delays as I've already outlined and I've confirmed already in 2025 alone over 50,000 applications remain pending. That's disgraceful. What message is that sending out to businesses or even companies that are looking to come in here to invest? What sort of a message is that sending out? That's logjam that should not be there and across the years arrears now exceed 90,000 applications. This backlog has seriously delayed property transactions, delayed agricultural transfers, delayed conveyancing, delayed housing delivery and a direct impact on market efficiency across Ireland but it's also damaging our reputation. As I say in terms of companies or businesses trying to expand or companies trying to invest like when they see this, this has to be sorted out. I accept that some steps have been taken in terms of Talsa Éireann's full staffing of the registration team and accelerated recruitment but I'm not seeing the benefits. As a TD I think there's no point in giving us an email for Talsa Éireann if they're not going to give us a proper response and I think that that certainly there needs to be changed there. The figures speak for themselves, they're the facts. The backlog that has escalated dramatically and continues to impose uncertainty and delay on families, farmers, solicitors and businesses is totally unacceptable and it should not be the case. If we are serious about tackling delays in our planning system then we must be also serious about tackling delays in the property registration system. One cannot function without the other and while we speak about planning reform I must use this opportunity to highlight the deeply distressing situation facing families in Stonestown, Clough and County Offaly in terms of a wind farm development and those families have been living through what can only be described as mental and physical torture arising from excessive wind turbine noise, vibration and operational practices and I know that I did raise this issue here in the Dáil a number of times. Those families need to be listened to, their health is suffering. I met the families personally, young couples and they and their families are suffering terribly from what's happening with a wind farm imposed on them that they didn't want and I have personally reviewed the noise diaries kept by the affected families and to say they are harrowing is an understatement. It's a harrowing record of their suffering, the constant humming, heavy vibration through the house, nights of relative quiet while testing equipment is present, followed by a sudden return to a roaring noise once the equipment is removed and that seems to be what's happening here. These families are enduring sleep deprivation, physical pain, emotional distress and severe disruption to family life. They have been left waiting almost six months for basic communication from Stadcraft's contractors. It's not good enough. There should be respect given that if there's health issues and health concerns then immediately a wind farm should be told to stop their operation because there's serious health concerns here and I call on the ministers to intervene in that particular case. It really is a public health failure enabled by weak enforcement and inconsistent monitoring and I will continue to raise this matter on behalf of the families of Stonestown in Cloughan with the minister, with the EPA and Offaly County Council. No family in Ireland should be subjected to what these families are being subjected to in Stonestown and while I welcome aspects of the planning bill minister, particularly the judicial review reforms, I must emphasize that planning reform cannot be selective. It has to be cohesive and it has to ensure that proper practices, procedures and agencies are operating efficiently and as I say, particularly Táilte Aran, that is not fit for purpose. There needs to be something done there. The bill cannot focus on one part of the system while ignoring others. It cannot prioritize key towns while leaving small rural towns and villages in rural Ireland behind and it cannot claim to reduce delays while thousands remain stuck in a simple, what should be a simple registration process backlog that has totally spiraled out of control. We need a planning system that is fair, that is efficient, that is transparent and that is responsive and that also collaborates properly with TDs. We're sick of stock answers. I won't be accepting any more stock answers. We need a registration system that is a properly resourced and properly functional system and we need an enforcement system that protects people. I look forward to the minister's clarification on section 11 and its implications for rural Ireland in terms of the priority towns and in terms of my own county in County Offaly, we have been disadvantaged and we haven't seen enough investment and we haven't seen balanced regional development. So we need to be treated fairly, no more than any other area in the state. Go raibh maith agat.