Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for her comments and her support for these additional measures. As I mentioned to Deputy McAuliffe earlier, the operation of licence arrangements, even prior to Covid, is a devolved power to local authorities. They decide whether to grant or refuse a licence, what type of licence they give and what is included in that licence. This means the scope of it, for example, how much street furniture is allowed. It is rightly with them. All local authority functions have a basis in primary legislation. The Planning and Development Act 2000 just sets out the process. The application of it and the granting of licences and all that is devolved to local authorities. I have said it here, I have heard it from a number of Senators and Deputies, and I have heard it particularly from Dublin City Council, DCC, to be fair, and Cork City Council , that where more licences than other local authorities have to be processed, sometimes additional resources are required, and we will provide them. I would positively look at any reasonable request that come in.

To be fair, we learned a lot over the past two years as to how, perhaps, where licences were not granted before, they were this time. I talk about New Street in my own town of Malahide. There have been talks about pedestrianisation or partial pedestrianisation and what we would do going back to 2004. It is the same in Dún Laoghaire and other places as well. We have seen that in South Anne Street too. It has been done, so people can actually see how it works now, which is a very good thing.

If there is a refinement required in the process at a local authority level, it is open to the local authority to do that. All we are doing is setting out the basis for granting the licences under the Act. The operation of it is with the local authorities. I assure the Senator that they have as much as devolved powers as they need in this space to be able to look after their own areas.

I fully support what she said. I want to make sure that our cities, towns and villages are more accessible, walkable and bikeable and that we reduce the dependency on cars and make every town, village and part of our city allow for the pedestrian, family and cyclist first. We should not allow for the car first. A situation that we have seen work very well through Covid is that people are now able to sit down and have a cup of coffee or tea on their main streets or paths and enjoy what is there, and spend more time in their towns and villages with their families and friends. That is what it should be about.