Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 66:

In page 46, between lines 23 and 24, to insert the following:

“Amendment of section 28 (Ministerial guidelines) of Principal Act

9. Section 28 of the Principal Act (as amended by section 2 of the Planning and Development (Amendment) Act 2015) is amended by deleting subsection (1C).”.

You might have an inclination, Chair, as to the reason behind the amendment. To give an example, when Deputy Alan Kelly was Minister, he introduced legislation to restrict the ability of local authorities to opt for higher standards. There was an example in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown where the council was seeking to implement passive house standards which have a higher standard of building rating. As I recall, the then Minister, Deputy Alan Kelly, introduced a provision in section 28 of the principal Act to allow him to restrict local authorities from setting higher standards. That brings me back to the earlier discussion about how we still need to free up local authorities and not completely disempower councillors but to encourage them to start doing innovative things which are in tune with the principles and objectives of the policy system we may want. The amendment will remove that legislative provision which is unnecessarily restrictive on local authorities. It is better to look for best case examples. In some cases it will work and in other cases it will not work and we learn from the mistakes and move on. To my mind, ruling out the ability of local authorities to opt for higher standards is inappropriate and that is the reason I will press this amendment.