Results 3,961-3,980 of 34,618 for speaker:Seán Fleming

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Financial Statements of An Bord Pleanála (3 Oct 2019)

Seán Fleming: All local authorities have population targets in their plans. Inevitably, they will not work. While they are a great idea, they just do not work in practice. Let us say a local authority has a population of 100,000. Over the lifetime of its regional and national plans, it is to grow to 110,000 but the natural increase goes beyond that without a new house being built. What happens when...

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Financial Statements of An Bord Pleanála (3 Oct 2019)

Seán Fleming: Most of them are fairly well advanced because they have to be updated regularly. Most of them know that the figures are dictated based on a region, such as that the population might increase by 5%. Since I was elected, the population of County Laois has risen from 48,000 to 85,000, or a 75% increase. We were told that we were-----

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Financial Statements of An Bord Pleanála (3 Oct 2019)

Seán Fleming: We were told Athlone, Mullingar and Tullamore were places that would grow but Portlaoise grew rapidly. Some projections do not take into account economic gravity or increasing birth rates. Many people provide figures for local and regional development plans that they know are wholly unrealistic on the day they provide them. I am afraid those figures will come back and bite some people some...

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Financial Statements of An Bord Pleanála (3 Oct 2019)

Seán Fleming: Mr. Walsh refers to water, sewerage, electricity and other utilities. Will Mr. Walsh send us figures on what percentage of the decisions in oral hearings the board holds were upheld? I refer to cases where there were appeals.

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Financial Statements of An Bord Pleanála (3 Oct 2019)

Seán Fleming: Mr. Walsh knows what I mean. Does the board have any statistics on cases where it made a decision and contravened a county development plan?

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Financial Statements of An Bord Pleanála (3 Oct 2019)

Seán Fleming: If the board can provide the statistics, I would appreciate them on a county-by-county chart. I acknowledge we have asked a lot of the board.

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Financial Statements of An Bord Pleanála (3 Oct 2019)

Seán Fleming: I apologise.

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Financial Statements of An Bord Pleanála (3 Oct 2019)

Seán Fleming: As the Comptroller and Auditor General once stated, this is the starting point. I quote him every time anybody is asked for anything. On the issue of wind farm guidelines, we operate on old, out-of-date ones. We have been told for years that new ones are expected and that it is a matter for the Department but I do not understand it. When people started building wind turbines, they...

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Financial Statements of An Bord Pleanála (3 Oct 2019)

Seán Fleming: The guidelines are taken into consideration but cannot be quoted as the reason for a decision.

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Financial Statements of An Bord Pleanála (3 Oct 2019)

Seán Fleming: An Bord Pleanála is conscious of the WHO and international guidelines.

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Financial Statements of An Bord Pleanála (3 Oct 2019)

Seán Fleming: Mr. Walsh's organisation has moved on, even though the Department has not caught up with it. I am being somewhat critical. He said it all: the guidelines date from 2005, 14 years ago----

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Financial Statements of An Bord Pleanála (3 Oct 2019)

Seán Fleming: ----and are not fit for purpose in a planning context.

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Financial Statements of An Bord Pleanála (3 Oct 2019)

Seán Fleming: There will be another round of consultation after they are published.

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Financial Statements of An Bord Pleanála (3 Oct 2019)

Seán Fleming: It will be well into next year before that is done.

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Financial Statements of An Bord Pleanála (3 Oct 2019)

Seán Fleming: When did the process start?

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Financial Statements of An Bord Pleanála (3 Oct 2019)

Seán Fleming: It will take seven years for the wind energy guidelines to be renewed.

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Financial Statements of An Bord Pleanála (3 Oct 2019)

Seán Fleming: The court decision in the Belgian case affected the process.

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Financial Statements of An Bord Pleanála (3 Oct 2019)

Seán Fleming: It will take seven years to issue the guidelines.

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Financial Statements of An Bord Pleanála (3 Oct 2019)

Seán Fleming: How could the Department think it could bring in guidelines on such an important planning and environmental matter without an SEA? It is extraordinary that people in the Department thought that this could work.

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Financial Statements of An Bord Pleanála (3 Oct 2019)

Seán Fleming: We know that. The guidelines are a bit away yet.