Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Good afternoon and welcome to this meeting of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage, at which we will continue our pre-legislative scrutiny of the draft planning and development Bill 2022. We are joined today from the Irish Environmental Network, IEN, by Ms Attracta Uí Bhroin. Ms Phoebe Duvall and Dr. Elaine McGoff of An Taisce are both appearing with the IEN, as is Dr. Fred Logue. I thank them for their attendance. From the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland, RIAI, we are joined by Ms Kathryn Meghen and Ms Charlotte Sheridan. They are both very welcome. I am glad they could attend. We had invited them to attend with the planning institutes but we are happy to accommodate them at the session today. I thank the witnesses for their opening statements and briefings they submitted in advance of today's meeting.

I will read a brief note on privilege. Before we begin, I remind members of the constitutional requirement that members must be physically present within the confines of the place where 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 meetings. This means 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 Chair 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 and 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.

I will ask Ms Uí Bhroin of IEN to make her opening statement first and then Ms Meghen of RIAI to make hers. Before we move on to those statements, I will fill in the witnesses. This is the seventh meeting of our scrutiny of this Bill. We will hold another three meetings and then we will produce a report of recommendations, which will be informed by written submissions we have received and by these public sessions. We appreciate the witnesses giving their time to attend the committee and assisting us in getting this necessary legislation right in order that it serves us for the next decade or two and enables us to deliver the infrastructure we need and to be compliant with the intricacies and complexities of law that exists. The order we follow is that each member has seven minutes to ask questions and must receive the answers within that time. We then might have time to go to a second round.

I invite Ms Uí Bhroin to make the opening statement on behalf of IEN.