Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

-----I see from some of the responses is that they are all referring to the Planning and Development Act 2000 within the county councils. At a meeting of the housing committee on Tuesday, 30 January 2024, I asked Mr. Éanna Rowe from Waterways Ireland whether it is the responsibility of Waterways Ireland or the county council to address planning issues. His response more or less indicated that planning is the responsibility of the county council. When I further questioned Mr. Rowe, I said:

I wish to ask Mr. Rowe about the unauthorised development on Waterways Ireland land that he mentioned earlier. He stated that it is an issue for planning and for the council. However, if the land, which was taken illegally as it is illegal to take land without planning permission, is land belonging to Waterway Ireland, then it is Waterways Ireland's issue, not the council's issue.

Mr. Rowe responded:

The point I was making is that planning and development are matters for the local authorities under the Planning Acts. Encroachments or alleged encroachments on Waterways Ireland property, are a matter for Waterways Ireland.

He clarified that it is happening. From what I am seeing from these responses - this is why I asked about the rest of the council responses - the majority of the councils are coming back and saying that it is under the Planning Acts. It cannot be under the Planning Acts if planning was never applied for. Waterways Ireland has already acknowledged the possibilities of authorised and unauthorised developments on Waterways Ireland's property. I am anxious to see what the rest of the responses will be from those councils because I think we are going to end up being caught between a rock and a hard place. There is going to be one entity saying it is a planning issue, but how can it be a planning issue when planning was never applied for? It is on the property of a separate entity, which is Waterways Ireland, and therefore it is an issue for Waterways Ireland and the council will probably have nothing to do with it. Where are we going to have to go to get responses? This is going on and on, I am getting worried that there is going to be a massive void here and we are not going to get answers. That is why I wished to flag it to see if we can put urgency on the county councils to come back to the committee and discuss it. Is it the councils the Chairperson must bring in or is it Waterways Ireland? That is what I wanted to raise.