Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 12 July 2022

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government

Review and Consolidation of Planning Legislation: Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Resumed)

Ms Maria Graham:

The work is moving apace, with the Attorney General working on legal aspects and on drafting the Bill. The block we expect to receive quite shortly or in the near term is judicial review, which will be the final block we will want to talk to. The Attorney General is still working towards this process all being completed by the end of December. I think in September we will have to come to judicial review and what the shape of it is. We are very much working to that end of year target. We will no doubt be in the Deputies' hands as that process evolves. We would hope in September to have a shape of the overall piece. There are things around transitional issues, moving from one to the other, what is in flight, and how we deal with all of those issues. We have been through these different elements with the planning advisory forum. We take the points the Senator has made about the inclusion of the Dublin Democratic Planning Alliance. We have a couple of others that we are looking at so we will look at that one. On the environmental question, we broadened it out on the theme. We will look at that. The other area we are looking at in September is probably with the planning schools, the academic piece, to deal with that aspect.