Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 7 March 2023

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government

General Scheme of the Planning and Development Bill 2022: Discussion (Resumed)

Ms Cl?ona Kimber:

I agree with Mr. Mandal that there is a lot more in the Bill about the wind farms, strategic things and energy. It is not all about housing and residential, which I think I said already. When we examine these bigger items, we must accept that Ireland is going to have to undergo huge changes. Things will have to be done. There will be disputes. People have different visions of things. The Bill is missing that there needs to be a method of efficient and speedy resolution of disputes. There will be disputes. How do we solve them and solve them quickly? In the context of judicial review and those sorts of matters, the Bill seems to focus on stopping anybody from bringing these disputes forward to be adjudicated on. There will be disputes. How are we going to solve them cheaply, quickly, at the lowest possible level and keep everybody out of the High Court? The Bill is perhaps a missed opportunity to think about how we are going to resolve the inevitable issues like Shell to Sea, wind farms, rural communities and so on. How is that going to be resolved? I do not see a mechanism for doing that in the Bill at the moment.

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