Results 2,901-2,920 of 15,009 for speaker:Eoin Ó Broin

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Mar 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: That is quite a remarkable admission. What the Minister of State is actually saying - and he has said it pretty clearly - is that there could be a set of circumstances where a national planning policy statement could issue without any public consultation because-----

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Mar 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: I was getting to that. An urgent need is identified. Of course, who decides what is urgent? The Government does, not any objective identifier. The Minister of State then told us not worry because some of these statements can be very technical. They are the ones, in fact, that the public needs to be most vigilant and alert to because very often they are the ones that have the most...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Mar 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: That is what is troubling me.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Mar 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: Actually, no. It is a case to support my own argument. Is the Minister of State saying then, that for example, any national planning policy statement guidelines that would require EIA, SEA or AA would automatically have to go out for public consultation and that this provision could not be used for that in all stages?

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Mar 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: That is helpful. The regulation of the bulk purchase of houses is a really good case as to why some public consultation would have been useful, because that has not worked. I will not open the debate we had on the floor of the Dáil a couple of weeks back.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Mar 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: The figures from the CSO show that in the year after the regulation was introduced the actual number of bulk purchases of houses and duplexes increased. The regulation does not include apartments. If there had been some proper consultation process, there would have been a better regulation. Notwithstanding the fact that I supported the decision, albeit belated, of Government to move on the...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Mar 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: The Minister of State is digging a hole for himself because the 2020 guidelines were heavily criticised by planning authorities in a number of large urban centres. I recall talking to two senior planning officials in two local authorities who complained that nobody even talked to them about the regulations. I have no idea whether that is true and I do not imagine that the Minister of State...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Mar 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: I hope the Minister of State is going to give us good news and as the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, did earlier, he might tell us the Government will introduce this as a Report Stage amendment. I call on the Minister of State to give us the good news.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Mar 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: He has not spoken on these amendments.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Mar 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: There is always time for a change.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Mar 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: As the Minister of State knows, we on this side of the room are very reasonable. I cannot speak for others but I am happy to withdraw on that basis but reserve the right to reintroduce on Report Stage.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Mar 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: Amendments Nos. 217, 218 and 219 relate to an earlier proposal for a decision-making process for the Oireachtas. It would have required the insertion of the word "draft" before "national planning policy statement" in the legislation. These are minor consequential amendments that we do not need to worry about for the moment.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Mar 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: There are two questions I would like the Minister of State to answer before I speak to the amendment. We are dealing here with proposed amendments to the planning statements. Section 24(10)(a) refers to a situation where "it does not substantively or materially alter the draft National Planning Statement". Who decides what is substantive or material and against which criteria? Section...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Mar 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: Sure.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Mar 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: I presume the answer to the question of who decides is the Minister on foot of advice from the AG and-----

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Mar 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: I know the practice with AGs is that they do not necessarily give the Government one opinion, but a range of opinions.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Mar 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: Advise and the Minister decides.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Mar 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: That was the answer I feared. Separate to the questions I asked, the provision reads: “it is not likely to have significant effects on the environment or on any European site.” One of the problems with this is that it is a little like making a decision on a planning application. Under the current rules, the decision is made based on the application on its own. We do not...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Mar 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: Yes. It reads: "For the purposes of subsection (9), a modification shall be deemed to be minor where it does not substantively or materially alter the draft National Planning Statement." This is broadly in line with the wording in the section.