Results 6,501-6,520 of 27,055 for speaker:Darragh O'Brien

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (29 Feb 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: We could have a general housing discussion and I would disagree with most of what Deputy Ó Broin said about progress. I met representatives of the Irish Green Building Council. With regard to the MMC programme framework that is being led by the local authorities, I visit sites regularly looking at the very best of sustainable product. With regard to cross-laminated timber, I met those...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (29 Feb 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: Was it in the development plan?

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (29 Feb 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: Let us take France as an example. France’s social housing delivery, per capita, it is way behind what we are doing. Out of 19 surveyed European countries, it is way behind. Out of 19 European countries surveyed, we are the only ones last year and this year where construction was to grow. We are not laggards in delivery.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (29 Feb 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: A number of the initiatives that have been put in place. With regard to incentivisation of local authorities, we wrote-off €94 million of debt for local authorities to develop lands using MMC and best practice for additional social homes. That is another discussion. I made the point on the amendment. I understand; everyone wants the same thing but it is more than covered in what we...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (29 Feb 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: Amendment No. 115 basically changes a full stop to a semicolon. Amendment No. 301 -----

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (29 Feb 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: There are a lot of technical amendments here. Amendment No. 301 seeks to change the word “plan” to “strategy”, which is the correct term to use in the section. Which other ones does the Chair want me to speak to?

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (29 Feb 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: Amendment No. 320 seeks to delete “and range” from the sentence on the type and range of services in section 41(4)(c) as the term “range” is superfluous alongside type in this context.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (29 Feb 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: There are a lot of other very technical amendments here which are effectively corrections. I can go through them now such the committee wish.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (29 Feb 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: If I am going too quickly, members can stop me. Amendments Nos. 473 and 474 seek to replace three months with 12 weeks for consistency with other time periods in the Bill. Amendments Nos. 510 and 564 seek to replace "simultaneously" with "on the same day". That is to avoid any confusion that may arise from a literal interpretation of the word "simultaneously". These amendments all seek to...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (29 Feb 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: Amendment No. 651 improves ease of reading of the sentence by inserting "that the public are entitled' in place of 'the public are entitled". Again, it is a correction. Amendments Nos. 654 and 655 substitute "UDZ or SDZ scheme" for "any planning scheme under Part IX of the Act of 2000" simply for completeness.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (29 Feb 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: Yes. Amendment No. 659 to section 96 clarifies the resolution of members referenced means "passed by not less than three-quarters of the total number of the members of the planning authority". This is the case already but provides clarity to the reader of this section without him or her having to refer to elsewhere in the Bill. Amendment No. 662 deletes section 96(6), which contains a...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (29 Feb 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: It is in the group, but it is a more substantive one. There are a few other very minor amendments. Amendment No. 708 clarifies for certainty that section 122(1)(b)(ii) refers to both the national maritime framework or the relevant maritime spatial plan. Amendment No. 717 corrects the positioning of apostrophes when referencing the CRU. Amendment No. 755 does the same with reference...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (29 Feb 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: Deputy O'Callaghan will want to come back on one.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (29 Feb 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: I have only a few more to outline. Amendment No. 912 reorders the definitions outlined in Part 7 (Housing Supply) into alphabetical order. That is all it does. It does not change any of the definitions at all. Amendment No. 964 seeks to replace the word "issued" with "brought" for clarity. Similarly, amendments Nos. 272 and 273 improve the syntax of sections 270 and 271 without...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (29 Feb 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: I meant to say that.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (29 Feb 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: I will check that but I imagine everything is guided by legal advice and it is in line with what is required in the SEA directive.

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Electoral Process (29 Feb 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: The selection of polling stations at electoral events is a matter for returning officers. At the 2020 general election there was one inaccessible polling station in the constituency of Clare. Where it is not possible to acquire premises for polling stations that are or can be made accessible to wheelchair users, returning officers must give public notice of these premises. They are...