Results 2,381-2,400 of 15,248 for speaker:Eoin Ó Broin

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (27 Mar 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: Perhaps the Minister will address the question as to whether it is appropriate to ask the commission to make the assessment of whether something is of strategic or national importance.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (27 Mar 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: As the Minister knows, the background to this is the report from the CCMA of two years ago which identified more than 500 posts that needed to be filled in our planning authorities but which were not at that time. When the CCMA came before the committee on pre-legislative scrutiny, it made clear that the additional 530 posts were required to do the work it had at that time, not including all...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (27 Mar 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: I will respond to a couple of the Minister's points about An Bord Pleanála board and will then speak directly to the amendment. An Bord Pleanála board had a backlog prior to the crisis in the year before last. That crisis made the backlog larger. It would not be correct to say that staffing has not been a problem for the organisation for quite some time because it has been....

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (27 Mar 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: I have two related questions. We received documentation from a number of the public utilities – Gas Networks Ireland, Uisce Éireann, ESB and the Dublin Airport Authority. I am not saying this is correct but just to give the Minister a sense of it, to expand on Deputy McAuliffe’s point and to say it was not just Uisce Éireann, although he is absolutely right in that,...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (27 Mar 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: Seeking further information but also – I do not think the Minister was here when we had the discussion on another section – I understand elsewhere in the Bill the planning authority could still seek further information but that request for further information would not materially impact the new deadline for the decision. Therefore, it effectively made certain kinds of FI...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (27 Mar 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: I just want clarity on the following point, and I think we are almost there. I am the planning authority, I am assessing a planning application and I come to a point where I will not be able to make a decision within the time period. I can use section 98. I go to the applicant and ask if I can have an extension. If they agree, the decision has to be made within a set period. One of the...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (27 Mar 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: This is only for clarity; I am not arguing the point. Am I correct in saying that if the procedure of section 98 is utilised, the decision has to be made? I can ask for all the further information, FI, I want but the decision will have to be made within the agreed time period-----

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (27 Mar 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: -----whether that information has come back or not, and that decision is to grant or to refuse.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (27 Mar 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: But that is only if that additional information is available or can be collated within the additional time. We know that one of the reasons there is a six-month time period for further information requests is that sometimes they are surveys of a seasonal nature or things where the information is not necessarily available. All I want to be very clear about - I think the Minister is saying...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (27 Mar 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: It is not even a point. When we discussed this matter previously, there was some confusion as to whether this facility was already available. I cannot remember which Minister or Minister of State was with us, but I am pretty sure he said he would seek clarification and bring it back to the committee.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (27 Mar 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: It was Kieran O'Donnell who was here.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (27 Mar 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: My memory is coming back to me now. Correct me if I am wrong-----

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (27 Mar 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: -----but Kieran O'Donnell was not able to answer clearly the question. Is it possible today, under the existing Act, for a planning authority to request an extension of time-----

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (27 Mar 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: -----in exactly the same way as here, other than the penalty, or is the penalty in the existing provision? The Minister calls it a refund; I call it a penalty. Let us split the difference.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (27 Mar 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: That is what Kieran said when we were asking him the last time.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (27 Mar 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: A hundred per cent.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (27 Mar 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: Just so we have absolute clarity, subsection 98(4) is the procedure whereby the planning authority can ask the applicant for some extra time and the applicant can agree or not. That is new. That does not exist currently.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (27 Mar 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: For the Minister's benefit, the conversation we had previously was that there was an earlier formulation and it indicated that the applicant could provide an extension but there was lack of clarity as to whether the planning authority could request it. Kieran O'Donnell gave an undertaking to come back to the committee with a note clarifying exactly what is currently there and exactly what is...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (27 Mar 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: This is quite important to clarify.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (27 Mar 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: Absolutely.