Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to make some brief remarks on the Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill. The Bill is being introduced primarily in the context of a housing crisis but it also deals with a range of issues that will reach into other areas covered by the planning system over time. Broadly, the provisions are welcome, although they require some further discussion in terms of their import and impact. I commend the Minister and his officials on the legislation.

I wish to deal with the provisions in section 2, in particular. These amend section 28 of the Planning and Development Act in respect of planning guidelines. I will discuss two aspects of that. One relates to planning guidelines for housing accommodation. What is being introduced here is specifically in the context of apartment size and so forth so we can move more quickly and cost efficiently to deal with that section of the housing market. As I have said previously in the House, the housing crisis is complex but part of the solution surely should be linking the significant number of vacant houses all over the country with the housing need that exists.

I recently attended meetings in my constituency at which the issues of the decline of rural villages and dereliction were raised. One of the problems is that housing standards in the 1900s, when the houses were built along the main streets in the towns and villages of provincial Ireland, were very different from the planning standards that would apply if one wished to build a house now. It should not be beyond our capacity, in the context of the planning guidelines, to enable local authorities to play a proactive role in bringing back into use the many houses that have been abandoned in our towns and villages. They are no longer lived in. They might well be commercial units that have closed and nobody resides over the shop now. There could be a little ingenuity and creativity on the part of architects and engineers and some waiving of planning guidelines, because we do not wish to have a situation where in order to facilitate people to return to live on the main streets of our towns and villages we must virtually demolish these houses and build them again to new standards.

There is ample evidence in our towns, cities and villages that artisan-type redesign of old buildings can result in very attractive accommodation. There is a cost-effective solution in that regard. Many of these properties can be acquired for relatively low prices and it should not be beyond our capacity to design an incentive package to enable local authorities and private citizens to get involved in this regard so these houses can be brought back into residential use.

Part of the contract in respect of making those towns and villages attractive must be the local authority looking at what will encourage people in terms of the provision of footpaths, public lighting and playgrounds. Rural Ireland is not unlike urban Ireland and, while it is not without its problems, it is not in a state of terminal decline as some opposite would have us believe. However, there is a problem of dereliction in towns and villages which should be addressed. It could give a lift to an entire community if a village or town was presented in an attractive way. It would be a significant morale boost to local rural economies and our towns and villages.

In his speech on planning guidelines, the Minister of State indicated:

The amendment to this section elaborates on that by introducing a new power whereby the Minister may, within the section 28 guidelines, expressly state specific national planning policy requirements to be applied by An Bord Pleanála or planning authorities, as appropriate, in the exercise of their functions.

The Minister of State went on to say that the amendment will also enable future revisions to any other current guidelines. In the context of "any other current guidelines", I refer to a specific issue with the current guidelines on wind energy and wind turbines in particular. This is an issue which exercises communities affected like no other issue of which I am aware. I will provide one instance that illustrates graphically the problem with the current guidelines. A permission was granted by Cork County Council for the erection of 15 or 16 turbines not far from where I live in Macroom - perhaps ten miles away or less - some years ago. The project was compliant with the guidelines that applied then. However, the developer has come back in, foregone the planning application and applied for an alternative approval for five turbines which are nearly double the size of those which were the subject of the previous guidelines. It may have been appropriate six or seven years ago to have a turbine height from base to tip of 120 m but there is now an application for a wind turbine that is 170 m tall. That is an entirely different scale of development. It shows how quickly the guidelines have become outdated.

I commend the Minister of State on engaging in a consultation process. However, we need to reach an end game on this very quickly and publish the guidelines. At least, draft guidelines should be published and submitted to the Joint Committee on the Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht. The Minister of State needs to show people the colour of his money in respect of where we are going with the guidelines because rural communities deserve a fair crack of the whip. They are the people who live there and it is not fair that wind turbine technology has moved on very significantly and they are now double the height of what permission was being granted for ten years ago. Nevertheless, the guidelines have not moved at all. In terms of noise, flicker and distance from residential properties, the guidelines are significantly out of date. The consultation process and the level of engagement with it showed clearly the depth of feeling on the issue. It is time to publish and to let a new era begin.

In the broader context, everybody recognises that we need to decarbonise our energy and transport. We need to look at the mix of energy between wind, solar and biomass in the debate and I am sure that mix will form part of the energy policy announced by the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Alex White. The specifics of the guidelines on wind energy are significantly out of date and revised ones must be published at the earliest possible opportunity.

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