Planning: The committee dropped proposals in drafts of its report which would have limited the role of councillors in planning decisions.
While committee members said that measures were required to restore public confidence in the planning system in the light of the disclosures at the planning tribunal, it called on the Government to carry out a study of the issues involved.
Drafts seen by The Irish Times said council members should retain control over zoning but added that such decisions should be based "only on proposals from the council's planning professionals".
But in its final report, the committee said that councillors, as the agents of local democracy, "must be allowed to have a due influence on the planning system".
While stating that disclosures at the tribunal have "clearly shaken" public confidence in the role of politicians in the planning process, the committee said most local authority councillors repudiated suggestions that they were involved in corruption.
The committee also said the Government should establish a "one-stop-shop" planning procedure for major transport, sewerage and water supply developments.
Stating that there was a greater need for co-ordination between national agencies, Government departments and the local authorities responsible for infrastructure, the committee called for new guidelines to set out the role and responsibilities of each agency.
In addition, it called for the establishment of a special division of the High Court "to deal with legal challenges to infrastructural and environmental planning". This would speed up the legal process.
