Results 1-20 of 115 for going forward speaker:Cian O'Callaghan

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committees (1 May 2024)

Cian O'Callaghan: I raise with the Taoiseach the need to regulate management companies effectively. There is a commitment in the programme for Government to conduct a review of the Multi-Unit Developments Act, and almost four years later this has not been acted on. There have been serious questions about the financial management of a minority of management companies over recent years, with allegations in...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Heritage Sites (1 May 2024)

Cian O'Callaghan: ...of the portals above the collapsed chamber. It is the second-largest dolmen in Ireland. Only Brownshill Dolmen, County Carlow, is larger. Since ownership changed in 2019, there have been ongoing concerns about access to Howth estate and Aideen's Grave arising from the erection of a significant amount of fencing and the denial of access to the dolmen to an estimated 14,000 people who...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Apr 2024)

Cian O'Callaghan: ...Deputy Dillon, said there was advice from the Attorney General on it. The Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, might advise us of the number of instances on which the Attorney General's advice or, indeed, the Government acting on the Attorney General's advice, has been found not to have been the correct path to follow at the European Court of Justice. It has been presented here as if it is...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (17 Apr 2024)

Cian O'Callaghan: ...of affordable homes to meet a housing need in a local authority area, why not then have an affordable housing zoning to ensure sufficient land is available for affordable homes? If we are not going to oblige the local authority to dissemble land at affordable prices for affordable housing, as my previous amendment sought to do, why oppose a measure to give the option of an affordable...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Apr 2024)

Cian O'Callaghan: ...At what point does something that is meant to be time-limited stop? Will the Minister of State give us a commitment that this is the last extension that will happen in this regard and that we are not going to get further extensions? Second, what is the evidence of the impact this is having on provision, because a lot of work goes into the planning design procurement process for local...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill: Committee Stage (Resumed) (27 Mar 2024)

Cian O'Callaghan: When I was considering putting forward these amendments, I looked at this section and wondered whether to amend it. I thought that was not the correct angle to come from. The only timelines the Bill has in respect of taking in charge relate to a local authority's decision on a taking in charge request that is initiated by residents or a management company. The local authority may decide...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Mar 2024)

Cian O'Callaghan: It is not restrictive. It is just a matter of whether we place a value on hedgerows, like we do for trees. The Minister of State is saying “No” and that the Government does not value hedgerows in the same way it does trees. There is no question regarding whether section 48(2)(b) means a tree or hedgerow will never be touched. It is just a matter of whether value is put on...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (20 Mar 2024)

Cian O'Callaghan: ...mechanisms that might help to ensure the wishes of the democratically elected councillors and what they pass in the development plan might be adhered to, then the Bill is lacking. We are putting forward a measure to strengthen that. Having this happen after 20 months, in addition to the review much later on, would be a good point for the elected members to review objectives that were...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (19 Mar 2024)

Cian O'Callaghan: ...on Dublin City Council a few years ago were approached by the landowner of the Chivers site in Coolock. The landowner said: "If the land is rezoned to allow residential housing, I will put forward lots of affordable housing in it." The councillors rezoned the land to residential but the landowner then said he or she could no longer provide affordable housing and sold on the site to a...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (29 Feb 2024)

Cian O'Callaghan: ...State likely to be significantly affected so requests, the Member State in whose territory the plan or programme is being prepared shall, before its adoption or submission to the legislative procedure, forward a copy of the draft plan or programme and the relevant environmental report to the other Member State. Before Brexit, the UK would have been incorporated in that. Most likely with...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Feb 2024)

Cian O'Callaghan: I have one comment, which is that there was a good deal of criticism of the consultation process through the planning forum. The criticism from the IPI, given that it is the key petitioner in the area and represents the public and the private sectors, needs to be listened to. Apart from the IPI, as a formal organisation, I have also heard from planners with a similar view and this sense...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Feb 2024)

Cian O'Callaghan: ...would be a clear breach of the Aarhus Convention if that exempted development was allowed. Given the level of detail in the Bill, that could well be allowed under the regulations the Minister is going to bring forward, and that would be in breach of the Aarhus Convention because there would not have been public participation on it. It is fine if the Minister is telling me that all of...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (20 Feb 2024)

Cian O'Callaghan: ...someone shall have regard to something is not robust. It means it cannot be ignored and needs to be taken into consideration. That is along with not having votes, debates or the ability to put forward amendments for scrutiny, etc., specifically in respect of the plan. A committee can meet, pass resolutions and so on and the Minister shall have regard to that, but that is as far as it...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Feb 2024)

Cian O'Callaghan: ...able to find somewhere to live in their Gaeltacht communities, which is very serious. Yesterday, I went through the example of a physiotherapist who speaks the language in a Gaeltacht area and got a job in the local medical centre in the Gaeltacht area with a much-needed skill in that area. I am using the example of Adhna Ní Bhraonáin in An Spidéal. She ended up living...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Cian O'Callaghan: Does the Minister of State agree that planning authorities and the commission have a significant role in the decisions they make and how they go by their planning decisions, and that can impact Irish-language communities and Gaeltacht areas? If he agrees that they can, then clearly it would be important to have training for people in those areas, so they are aware of their obligations,...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Cian O'Callaghan: I welcome that. The real difficulty I have is that the time on Report Stage could be highly limited. We want to ask questions about, comment on and improve what the Minister of State comes forward with. It may simply be timed out on us. The Government usually guillotines Report Stage, which means there are only two, three or four hours when we need much longer. We probably will not even...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (13 Feb 2024)

Cian O'Callaghan: ...requirements. There is a mention of persons with disabilities on page 106 of the legislation. I am sure they are also mentioned elsewhere. Yet, it really does not address what I am putting forward at all; there is some mention of some requirements to include the needs of people with disabilities. In these amendments, I am proposing that where an EIA is required, an AIA should also be...

Residential Tenancies (Deferment of Termination Dates of Certain Tenancies) (No. 2) Bill 2023: Second Stage [Private Members] (12 Dec 2023)

Cian O'Callaghan: The Social Democrats will be supporting the Bill. I thank Deputy Ó Broin for bringing it forward. If anything, and I mean this in a constructive fashion, we think the Bill is too weak. As the Deputies in Sinn Féin have said, this is a modest proposal. We would like to see the situation in place in most European countries, and there is nothing radical about this at all. People...

Tenancy Protection Bill 2023: Second Stage [Private Members] (7 Dec 2023)

Cian O'Callaghan: ...is a ban on no-fault evictions, as is the norm in most European countries. I believe that as a country we will get there eventually, but the sooner we get there, the fewer difficulties there are going to be for renters. The Bill is a measure that would only address this situation for the smallest of cohorts of renters, effectively. It is a much more limited measure than the overall...