I raise an issue that communities all over the country can relate to, namely, proper community engagement. These are three very important words. We hear the phrase all the time. It is in development plans, policy documents and Government reports. Developers talk about it while councils and other State bodies say they are doing it. It even came up in two Oireachtas reports that I worked on this week. However, what does "community engagement" really mean and does it actually make any difference? Many communities feel that the answer is "No" because there are no proper standards to judge whether engagement was real and meaningful or whether it was just a public meeting followed by a report that backed a decision that was already made. This is not real community engagement. It just looks like community engagement, and people can see through that. There are already some good examples of how proper engagement can be delivered. They involve people being generally included, consultations happening early enough to influence decisions and public feedback actually being listened to. These are not radical ideas. They are basic common sense, but the problem is they are voluntary. As we all know, in planning voluntary rules mean nothing. When a community in east or west Clare is being consulted about a wind turbine project that will affect its area for years to come, it deserves to know the process meets a proper recognised standard, not whatever the developer decides is good enough for the area. My ask is simple. Will the Government consider introducing a national legal standard for community engagement in planning, policy decisions and grant funding? Will projects have to show that engagement was meaningful before planning permission or final approval is granted? Right now, we are spending public money on consultation that communities do not trust, reports they do not believe in and decisions they feel they have no real say in. That is not good planning and it damages trust between people and the State. We do not need to start from the beginning. There are already good examples that could help create an Irish standard but we need the political will to make it a requirement instead of just a nice idea.

Sentiment score: 0.18

I thank the Minister of State. Every one of us in this House knows of a local project, very often an energy project, in respect of which communities were angry about how developers engaged with them, or about whether they engaged with them at all. Instead of constantly dealing with these disputes, should we not create a clear set of standards that every public and private body must follow, whether it involves a major infrastructure project, a Department policy, the allocation of public funding or a county development plan? This is not about giving communities a veto; it is about making sure that when a project is to have a major impact on people's lives, engagement happens early enough to shape it before all the important decisions are made. If we want climate projects, roads and housing developments to proceed more quickly and with less public opposition, we need proper national standards that every developer must follow before applying for planning permission. At present, too many communities feel that consultation begins only after the real decisions have already been taken. That damages trust from the very start and can cause much avoidable concern in communities. It is my intention to bring forward a Private Members' Bill to create national statutory standards for community engagement that all public bodies and private developers will have to follow. I hope the Minister of State will support it.

Sentiment score: 0.29