Results 2,061-2,080 of 15,379 for speaker:Eoin Ó Broin

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (16 Apr 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: If and when a decision is made on that, I presume it will not require any change to the legislation before us and that it will be done by regulation or ministerial order rather than legislative change.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (16 Apr 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: That is something for the Chair, Deputy Matthews, to note. Given that the issue of the local authority fees was such a live topic during the pre-legislative scrutiny phase, it would be appropriate for us to suggest to the Minister that in advance of those regulations being finalised, some engagement with the committee would be more than welcome. We have a keen interest in this issue...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (16 Apr 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: I am not convinced that is a credible answer, although I appreciate it is the one the Minister of State has been given. Let us think about it for a second. A large-scale planning application goes in and there are significant fees on behalf of the applicant which, if the application is to the board is reflective of the cost but if it is to the local authority, it is not. That is why we have...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (16 Apr 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: Absolutely.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (16 Apr 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: To be clear, my question is not about the fees of the applicant. They have to be paid. It is the fees of the third party. I see that a vote has been called.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (16 Apr 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: It would be terrible to miss the Taoiseach's first vote.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (16 Apr 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: I have two questions. First, on page 297, section 159(2)(a), I refer to the word "abandoned". It states: "Without prejudice to subsection (1), where the planning authority or the Commission is of the opinion that an application, appeal or request made to it has been abandoned...". What does abandoned mean and who gets to decide? That is my first question. It is clear when something is...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (16 Apr 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: The assumption is that they are just not going to. Is it a six-month period that people have for the finished information?

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (16 Apr 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: Is that the only case in which it would be assumed abandoned?

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (16 Apr 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: Separate to FOI, which is during the actual initial decision-making period.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (16 Apr 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: Okay. My second question is on section 159(4). It is a very quick question in relation to the grounds where something would be deemed invalid. Are these new or existing provisions?

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (16 Apr 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: Nothing has changed from what is currently in the 2000 Act, as revised, or the Planning and Development (Large Scale Residential Developments) Act 2001.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (16 Apr 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: Effectively no or no?

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (16 Apr 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: So it is not that that category of development is not captured under the current Act; it is just the language used to describe it that is different.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (16 Apr 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: Okay, that is fine. I thank the Minister of State.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (16 Apr 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: I support the amendment. Let us give the Minister of State some real-life cases. There is an infamous residential developer in the city and county of Dublin.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (16 Apr 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: Real life cases. There are both life and live cases, which are serious. There is a well-known residential developer in the Dublin region, who, in 2017 acquired a former Ben Dunne gym on the Coldcut Road in north Clondalkin. Despite having planning permission to retrofit it into approximately 30 apartments, the developer proceeded to retrofit into 48 apartments, without any planning...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (16 Apr 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: Exactly. I want to deal with them separately.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (16 Apr 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: My understanding is that this section is broadly the same as the existing provisions. Was any assessment done when a decision was being made to simply replicate the existing provisions? Was there any assessment of whether the existing provisions were a useful tool in addressing the issue of developers securing future planning permissions where they have not complied with previous ones?...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (16 Apr 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: It is fine for the Minister of State to say that he does not support bad actors, and of course he does not. However, if the Government does not give the local authorities the tools to adequately enforce and weed out the bad actors, it amounts to the same thing. I have given the Minister of State a current example of a developer who has a building, fully occupied since 2018, with no planning...