Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I welcome everybody to the meeting. Today, we commence our pre-legislative scrutiny of the draft planning and development Bill 2022. From the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, we are joined by Mr. Paul Hogan, acting assistant secretary in the planning division, Ms Mary Jones, principal officer, Mr. Colin Ryan, senior planning adviser, and Mr. Eugene Waters, assistant principal officer.

For anybody watching, the committee will have a series of ten meetings on this legislation. It is critically important legislation in the context of that we are going to do in this country over the coming decades. We have ten meetings organised with a broad range of entities that have sectoral expertise across planning-related matters. We commence our proceedings today with the Department and we will conclude them with it on 9 March next. We will then produce our pre-legislative scrutiny report of recommendations and these will feed into the further development of the proposed legislation as it moves towards publication and being debated by the Houses.

Before we begin, I remind members of the constitutional requirement that they must be physically present within the confines of the place where the Parliament has chosen to sit, namely, Leinster House, in order to participate in public meetings. Those attending in the committee room are protected by absolute privilege in respect of their contributions to today's meeting. This means that they have an absolute defence against any defamation action for anything they say at the meeting. Both members and witnesses are expected not to abuse the privilege they enjoy and it is my duty as Chairman to ensure that this privilege is not abused. Therefore, if their statements are potentially defamatory in relation to an identifiable person or entity, they will be directed to discontinue their remarks. It is imperative that they comply with any such direction. Members and witnesses are reminded of the long-standing parliamentary practice to the effect that they should not comment on, criticise or make charges against a person outside the Houses or an official, either by name or in such a way as to make him or her identifiable.

Before I invite Mr. Hogan to make his opening statement, I note that the draft Bill is enormous. It runs to 740 pages. We have a small briefing document. Earlier, we had a briefing with the Department to go through some of the parts of it. The draft Bill is absolutely needed. The Act of 2000 had become impenetrable in places and is difficult for people to understand. We should acknowledge the role the Attorney General and his team played in bringing forward all of the relevant amendments and trying to consolidate everything relating to planning. The committee will play its part now in ensuring that we produce fit-for-purpose planning legislation for the future.

I invite Mr. Hogan to make his opening statement.