Results 2,941-2,960 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: I will probably speak to them separately, but if the Minister of State wishes to respond to them collectively, it is fine if we deal with them one by one. Amendment No. 222 represents the second part of the Irish Planning Institute’s general concerns raised with the committee and in its subsequent written submission regarding national planning policy statements. We had a detailed...

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

Eoin Ó Broin: I have always loved the phrase "mandatory ministerial guidelines". It is a wonderfully Orwellian phrase because they are either guidelines or they are mandatory. They cannot be both.

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

Eoin Ó Broin: No.

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

Eoin Ó Broin: I remind the Minister of State that I have the floor. He will have time to respond. He should restrain himself, please. I return to my point. Something cannot be mandatory and a guideline. I absolutely understand that we have section 28 guidelines which have general guideline text. Within those there is the Orwellian mandatory requirement which is special planning policy requirement....

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

Eoin Ó Broin: Mandatory.

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

Eoin Ó Broin: I get that. When you read the section 28 guidelines, you note the general guidelines text and then the SPPR part in bold, just to emphasise that is the Orwellian mandatory bit you are meant to comply with.

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

Eoin Ó Broin: However, the real issue is not that. The reason the Government is introducing national planning policy statements to replace SPPRs is that when a number of very controversial SPPRs relating to design standards and building heights went to the courts, they did not stand up as legally robust on foot of judicial reviews. As a consequence, they are legally unsound. They comprise a legally weak...

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

Eoin Ó Broin: Absolutely.

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

Eoin Ó Broin: I would like to temper some of the Minister of State's surprise. The SPPRs in the guidance document are quite good, as I have said publicly, but the difficulty is that they are decided by the Minister. If there are to be statutory mandatory planning rules, they should be passed by the Oireachtas. I do not want to open up this debate as we have had it. My issue is not with the idea of...

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

Eoin Ó Broin: Let me make my point. A number of SPPRs have fallen foul of the courts and are no longer mandatory in practice. That is why all the judicial reviews of SHDs in conflict with the development plans were lost. There was a very large number, with which I can provide the Minister of State if he wants. I realise I am not going to convince the Minister of State but I put it to him that some of...

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

Eoin Ó Broin: SPPRs are not currently approved by the Cabinet; they are agreed only by the Minister.

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

Eoin Ó Broin: I move amendment No. 183: In page 64, between lines 35 and 36, to insert the following: “(e) prescribed bodies,”. I will withdraw this amendment and reserve the right to reintroduce it 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: I move amendment No. 185: In page 65, between lines 1 and 2, to insert the following: “(g) board members of Údarás na Gaeltachta, Foras na Gaeilge, the Minister responsible for the Gaeltacht, Language Planning Officers and Oifig an Choimisinéara Teanga.”.

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

Eoin Ó Broin: I move amendment No. 192: In page 65, line 21, after “rural” to insert “and Gaeltacht”

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

Eoin Ó Broin: I move amendment No. 194: In page 65, between lines 21 and 22, to insert the following: “(g) protection of the linguistic and cultural heritage of Irish language and Gaeltacht communities including the promotion of Irish as the community language, specifically by supporting the implementation of language plans in Limistéir Phleanála Teanga Ghaeltachta, in Bailte...

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

Eoin Ó Broin: I move amendment No. 200: In page 66, lines 6 and 7, to delete “and the assessment of any application for development consent under Part 4”.

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

Eoin Ó Broin: The amendment is self-explanatory. We had a lengthy discussion in the previous session with the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, about adding other areas which should be included in the list of 15 areas of section 24 for consideration when issuing national planning statements. As I said to the Minister when he was here earlier, I appreciate that the section 24(1) does not preclude the adding of...

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

Eoin Ó Broin: Yes.

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

Eoin Ó Broin: I will go further than Deputy O'Callaghan on the spending because this is something I have been tracking very carefully for quite a number of years. During Covid-19, for the first time, the capital allocation was spent in full. Initially, this was on Covid measures. In many cases, then, it was spent on-site improvements. Again, these are very welcome but the number of new...

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

Eoin Ó Broin: I have some questions that will not be dealt with in a few minutes. I am conscious that it is 5.10 p.m. and we were supposed to be finished at 5 p.m.