Mattie McGrath accuses the minister of 'power grab' over planning bill

I have been raising the whole plight of the pig farmers, you do not want to discuss them, but this be it all out to introduce 67 new amendments to the planning and development bill and to change the whole type of the bill. It is now a seriously different bill from what we thought it was on the first day. We had debated it here and the minister told me he had five different sets of amendments, he had six different sets of amendments actually, 67 in total, and he is going to ram it through tomorrow in a little over two hours again. This is shockingly bad, rush legislation is always bad, but this is terrible, and it is going to destroy the input of the local authorities and their input into legislation. So it is a take-off, it is a power grab by Minister Daryl O'Brien and by the Department of Housing that there is no democracy anymore, not in this House, nor in local authorities. It is shocking, and the rule of independence are totally opposed to it. Mr Mr McIaffan, Prime Minister, Prime Minister Kean or Callaghan? Prime Minister Kean or Callaghan Prime Minister Cahillian Minister Daryl O'Brien, Prime Minister Kean or Callaghan. We just heard earlier at Leaders' questions about the demands to increase housing supply, to reduce the pressure on renters and so on. I mean, that was the full purpose of the amendments, essentially in relation to short-term lettings in particular, which I would have thought many people had been calling for in this House. Many people were looking for this, and the Minister is endeavouring to provide for that now. In my view, there are positive amendments that will provide greater supply. We just had people complaining about the absence of supply and the need for more supply. Yes, I have indeed in terms of the short-term lettings. In addition to that, I would make the point that the Government has made it clear that there will be a cost-of-living package, a very substantial one, in tandem with the Budget. A lot of work has to go into that, and a lot of work has to go into the Budget in terms of getting that right. We have already, this last week, introduced measures in terms of increasing the back-to-school allowance, over €100. That will take effect in the next week or so. In addition to that, providing extensive meals to children in desk schools, particularly the new schools. Remember, we had the largest increase in desk schools ever this year, which is an outstanding measure taken by the Minister of Education, but now the School Meal Programme will be applied as a cost-of-living measure also, but it's the right thing to do for those attending those desk schools, and school transport fees have been waived for the coming September period. Again, to reduce costs that families would face as they go back to school. I think these are reasonable measures. We need a more comprehensive package at the end of September in terms of cost of living. There's no doubt about that. We have to do it in a way that is not inflationary, as best we can. We also have to alleviate the pressures on households. There were briefings, I understand, of the Committee by department officials yesterday in relation to these amendments, and I think we do need to continue to streamline our system to make sure we can increase supply of all forms of housing units. Certainly, there's no grab for power.