Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 14 February 2023
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government
General Scheme of the Planning and Development Bill 2022: Discussion (Resumed)
Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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I will start with two questions for CIF and Wind Energy Ireland that they have had much time to think about because I raised them in my first contribution. I ask about the zoned land and the simplification of that. I ask Wind Energy Ireland about the design envelope flexibility and how we bake repowering back into this legislation to make it work.
I was interested to hear Ms. Doyle’s thoughts on accountability. I am not sure I would agree with the CIF that it is not public money that would be paying the fines.
Something that has come up twice, both in an opening statement, I believe by IIP, and in the discussion since, is this idea of attracting talent into An Bord Pleanála. I questioned An Bord Pleanála representatives last week about that accountability space. They floated the idea of fixed-term contracts, which I would be a little bit hesitant about because that might make the situation worse. I am not an industry expert, so I would be open to hearing, in particular, IIP’s representatives’ views on that, given they raised this.
We will start with CIF and Wind Energy Ireland, followed by that hiring piece.