Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We will deal first with amendments Nos. 112 to 114, inclusive, because they relate to the same section. As I read it, section 12(8)(b) relates to an application for a licence and if a local or planning authority does not make a decision on the application within a set period of time, or if it does not make a decision within a set period after securing additional information, there is an automatic assumption that permission is granted. I have a concern that, as a general procedure, this could lead to inadequate or inappropriate decisions, particularly in the context of local authorities not having adequate staff to meet what are pretty onerous timelines. Just to remind the committee, the County and City Management Association raised over a year ago the fact that there were 500 too few staff in the planning authorities to undertake their current functions.

That needs to be borne in mind with anything provided for. I would be interested to know whether this type of procedure is a feature in licensing or planning elsewhere. I will refer to the purpose of my amendments. The first suggests that the period should be 12 weeks rather than eight weeks. That is 12 weeks from the application before an automatic assumption of grant is provided. The second extends the period from four weeks to six weeks where a decision is to be made on foot of further information.

The third addresses an issue I am quite concerned about. There is no recognition here, although there is elsewhere in these sections, of licence applications that involve environmental impact assessment or appropriate assessment considerations. Whatever about periods lasting eight weeks or 12 or four weeks or six for regular licence applications, I would have thought than any licence application subject to an EIA or an AA could not avail of such a procedure because that would breach European law. I am quite concerned about a carve-out for any applications subject to EIAs or AAs. On that basis, the third amendment seeks to make very clear that:

Notwithstanding this subsection, where the licence involves environmental impact assessment or appropriate assessment, no deemed grant of permission shall arise where a planning authority fails to make the decision within the periods referred to ... [in the paragraph.]

As the Minister of State is answering the question, I would also like to know the basis on which the number of weeks was decided because that is going to come up quite a lot over the next period of time. That is obviously an important consideration. Was there consultation with the County and City Management Association or professional planners? Some of these could be quite small and could be done within the set number of weeks. Some could be quite complex and may involve multiple cabling or related structures in a particular area. I am interested in the rationale behind these very tight timelines of eight and four weeks.