Results 6,421-6,440 of 15,301 for speaker:Eoin Ó Broin

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Planning and Development Bill 2022: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Feb 2023)

Eoin Ó Broin: I thank our guests for their detailed engagement, which is helpful for us in getting our heads around the provisions of the draft Bill. I have a couple of comments and will then put a general question about the draft Bill to all of the groups. I will also ask a specific question of WEI. It is important to put additional information on the record in respect, for example, of planning...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Planning and Development Bill 2022: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Feb 2023)

Eoin Ó Broin: I am not being in any way adversarial but I am looking for changes to the Bill rather than general principles. Perhaps Mr. Spain has some in mind.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Planning and Development Bill 2022: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Feb 2023)

Eoin Ó Broin: It should be an application of public law-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Planning and Development Bill 2022: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Feb 2023)

Eoin Ó Broin: Is there a way the legislation could make a distinction, not between the real case categories but certain types of error or procedures and certain matters of law? The question in my head is that third category. Ms Conaghan makes a compelling case for the first two. The third relates to a dispute, for example, on whether a mandatory ministerial guideline is legally superior to a strategic...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Planning and Development Bill 2022: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Feb 2023)

Eoin Ó Broin: Yet we have to do so, including in the area of wind.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Planning and Development Bill 2022: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Feb 2023)

Eoin Ó Broin: I would appreciate that. I thank Ms Conaghan.

Emergency Housing Measures: Motion [Private Members] (9 Feb 2023)

Eoin Ó Broin: I thank the Labour Party for introducing this motion and giving us the opportunity to have this important debate. While there might be some minor differences on the details of the policy proposals, we are more than happy to support the motion. I do not know where to start. At an earlier stage in this Dáil, I was one of many on the Opposition benches who would have given the Minister of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Planning and Development Bill: Discussion (Resumed) (9 Feb 2023)

Eoin Ó Broin: I thank the witnesses for their presentations and comments. There is much I agree with, particularly on the under-resourcing of both organisations, not just historically but contemporaneously and the need for significant increases in resourcing to manage the new plan-led approach of this legislation and the other tasks they have been given, particularly maritime area planning. I have...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Planning and Development Bill: Discussion (Resumed) (9 Feb 2023)

Eoin Ó Broin: Mr. Cussen is well accustomed from his previous role, to the constraints between what is required and what is available. Does he think there is a need for independent assessments and publication of estimates of the staffing levels that are required to meet these kinds of functions? Is that something that his body could or should do? There is a political process and a budgetary process, but...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Planning and Development Bill: Discussion (Resumed) (9 Feb 2023)

Eoin Ó Broin: There would be nothing stopping the Office of the Planning Regulator, given its independent role, from publishing such independent reviews on resourcing, irrespective of whether the Government asks it to do that or not. That could be an important function for the regulator.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Planning and Development Bill: Discussion (Resumed) (9 Feb 2023)

Eoin Ó Broin: Just do not ask Mr. Cussen to do it.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Planning and Development Bill: Discussion (Resumed) (9 Feb 2023)

Eoin Ó Broin: Unfortunately, my short experience in this House is that these kinds of technical Bills do not change an awful lot between now and their final passage. I hope I will proved wrong on this occasion.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Planning and Development Bill: Discussion (Resumed) (9 Feb 2023)

Eoin Ó Broin: It is never the Department that is the problem, Chair, but we will deal with that another day. I agree with Ms Buckley's point on timelines. I am a strong advocate of timelines but they have to make sense and be appropriate to the decision that is made. They also have to be properly resourced. I appreciate that An Bord Pleanála is engaging with the Department, but ultimately it is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Planning and Development Bill: Discussion (Resumed) (9 Feb 2023)

Eoin Ó Broin: Flattery will get you nowhere.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Planning and Development Bill: Discussion (Resumed) (9 Feb 2023)

Eoin Ó Broin: I apologise for cutting across Ms Buckley but I am more interested in any data she may have of that earlier period when the board was adequately resourced-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Planning and Development Bill: Discussion (Resumed) (9 Feb 2023)

Eoin Ó Broin: -----because that gives us a better picture of what we want to move towards.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Planning and Development Bill: Discussion (Resumed) (9 Feb 2023)

Eoin Ó Broin: There are also a very small number of decisions which are due now for almost five years. They are very complex cases----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Planning and Development Bill: Discussion (Resumed) (9 Feb 2023)

Eoin Ó Broin: I wish to say again that I fully support many of the proposals Ms Buckley has made in respect of alternative mechanisms to ensure compliance and will fully support-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Planning and Development Bill: Discussion (Resumed) (9 Feb 2023)

Eoin Ó Broin: -----many of those. Yes. I agree absolutely.