James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)

We are making radical decisions to get people out of box rooms, to get viability and to get properties built across this country. We know we have a crisis. I am treating it as an emergency. If we do not take radical measures and do so quickly, we will not get the apartments in Dublin city and across this country. That is why we are bringing forward these measures to address the issue of viability in terms of these apartments. People will decide whether they want to buy them.

In terms of judicial reviews, we have a very open court system. Anyone can take pretty much any action he or she wants. How far he or she gets is a different matter. These amendments were considered by the Attorney General and we have the Attorney General's advice. I would not be doing it otherwise. We are satisfied that these are constitutionally robust amendments.

Cultural spaces in the Dublin City Council development plan were mentioned. This Government and the previous one significantly funded community, cultural and sports places. There has been record funding for all those areas and we will continue to do that but the way to provide cultural spaces is not by way of a levy on developers building apartments who end up pushing that on to the purchasers and driving up the price of apartments. That is not the way to deliver cultural spaces. When I am doing this, I am thinking of those people who need homes to live in. Nobody can live in high-spec, high-design apartments that never leave the blueprints or drawings and that is what I am addressing here. I am very ambitious to address it. There is significant mixed tenure in these guidelines for apartments but we will not get any two-beds, three-beds and four-beds unless we make an adjustment so we can amend the viability of the apartment blocks to get them built so people can have those homes to live in.

I will address amendment No. 1 to Seanad amendment No. 24, which concern the modification of a permission for residential development. Seanad mendment No. 24 proposes to introduce a new section 44B into the Act of 2000 providing a certification procedure for modifications to planning permissions for residential development which are in line with certain specific planning policy requirements contained in the recently published Planning Design Standards for Apartments, Guidelines for Planning Authorities 2025.

Amendment No. 1 to amendment No. 24 seeks to include a requirement that applications for certificates under section 44B be notified to the public by way of a site notice. The proposed section 44B(13) would enable the Minister to make regulations for the purposes of this section. Where it is determined that a site notice is required, such a requirement will be introduced by regulations made under subsection (13) as is the case under the Planning and Development Regulations 2001. The amendment further proposes that the relevant authority must provide for public participation in the certification process by inviting written submissions from interested persons or organisations and the relevant authority must also have regard to those submissions when issuing a certificate under the proposed section 44B.

The Aarhus Convention relates to access to information, public participation in decision-making and access to justice in environmental matters. Following discussions with the Office of the Attorney General, the Department remains satisfied that the Bill is in compliance with all international obligations, including the Aarhus Convention. It is important to note that section 44B(5)(b) provides that a relevant authority cannot issue a certificate under section 44B if an appropriate assessment, AA, or environmental impact assessment, EIA, in relation to the proposed modification of the permission is required. Where an EIA or AA is required, such proposed modifications may only be sought by way of a planning application, a process that provides for public participation and notification. In this context, regulations made under section 44B will provide the screening procedures for EIA and AA to facilitate this provision. Given the urgent need to increase housing supply, section 44B enables a limited number of modifications to existing planning permissions to facilitate the building of much-needed apartment developments while ensuring environmental screening is carried out in respect of those modifications. Therefore, I oppose the Deputies' amendment.

Seanad amendment No. 24 will introduce a new section 44B into the Act of 2000 providing a certification procedure for modifications to planning permissions for residential development that are in line with certain specific planning policy requirements contained in the recently published Planning Design Standards for Apartments, Guidelines for Planning Authorities 2025. Viability presents an ongoing challenge to housing delivery and this is particularly relevant for the delivery of apartments, where a considerable gap has emerged between the cost of delivering apartment development and comparable general housing market prices. The new guidelines provide guidance, standards and policy requirements in relation to the design of apartment developments to take account of current Government policy and economic, social and environmental considerations. Given the urgent need to increase housing supply, the proposed section 44B will enable the holders of existing permissions for apartment developments that have not yet commenced to modify their permissions in line with the new guidelines.

As the provision explicitly sets out, its purpose is to facilitate the construction of a greater numbers of dwellings in apartment complexes than permitted under permissions already granted taking account of the acute shortage of residential accommodation, the rise in homelessness, the rise in the cost of residential rental accommodation and house and apartment purchase prices. Section 44B enables the holder a permission for residential development to apply to the relevant authority that granted that permission, either a planning authority or An Coimisiún Pleanála, to certify that a proposed modification of a permission is a permitted modification. The relevant authority must be satisfied that the proposed modification, if made, is a permitted modification in order for a certificate to issue.

Applications for certificates will need to be accompanied by revised plans and drawings and other documentation and information related to the proposed modification, including for the purpose of carrying out environmental screening. Certificates will not be issued for proposed modifications in the following scenarios: the development has already commenced; an AA or EIA in relation to the proposed modification is required; or the applicant for the certificate fails to comply with any documentation or further information requirements. In addition, if the development is located in a strategic development zone, a certificate cannot be issued if the proposed modification would cause the number of dwellings in that strategic development zone to exceed the number permitted by its planning scheme.

Where a certificate is issued, the permission will stand so modified and any development carried out in accordance with a modified permission will not be unauthorised development. Public notification requirements are set out requiring the relevant authority to issue a public notice in a newspaper and on its website as well as making the relevant documentation available for inspection, including on its website.

Section 44B is a temporary provision and certificate applications for proposed modifications must be made within two years from this Bill coming into operation. Amendments Nos. 21, 25 and 26 are consequential to the introduction of this new certification procedure for modifications to existing apartment permissions. Amendment No. 21 amends section 7 of the Act of 2000 to provide that particulars of any permission modified in accordance with section 44B must be entered into a planning authorities register.

Amendments Nos. 25 and 26 concern fee setting for the certification applications to amend section 246 of the Act of 2000 whereby the Minister may prescribe in regulation a fee in respect of applications under section 44B and amending section 144 of that Act to facilitate the commission to set a fee in respect of such applications where they are the relevant authority.

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