Results 24,541-24,560 of 40,897 for speaker:Simon Coveney

Select Committee on Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Planning and Development (Housing) and Residential Tenancies Bill 2016: Committee Stage (Resumed) (13 Dec 2016)

Simon Coveney: Amendments Nos. 17, 114, 115, 121 and 125 to 127, inclusive, propose to amend both sections 4 and 22 of the Bill to provide essentially that an application for an extension of duration of a planning permission will be treated as a new application for permission involving environmental impact assessment and appropriate assessment in particular cases, full public participation, a right of...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Planning and Development (Housing) and Residential Tenancies Bill 2016: Committee Stage (Resumed) (13 Dec 2016)

Simon Coveney: But it is an answer.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Planning and Development (Housing) and Residential Tenancies Bill 2016: Committee Stage (Resumed) (13 Dec 2016)

Simon Coveney: I move amendment No. 123:In page 34, line 6, to delete "the date of the commencement of this section" and substitute "the day preceding the day that section 22of the Planning and Development (Housing) and Residential Tenancies Act 2016comes into operation".

Select Committee on Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Planning and Development (Housing) and Residential Tenancies Bill 2016: Committee Stage (Resumed) (13 Dec 2016)

Simon Coveney: I move amendment No. 124:In page 34, line 10, to delete "commencement of this section" and substitute "the commencement of section 22of the Planning and Development (Housing) and Residential Tenancies Act 2016".

Select Committee on Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Planning and Development (Housing) and Residential Tenancies Bill 2016: Committee Stage (Resumed) (13 Dec 2016)

Simon Coveney: I will give the courtesy of an answer. These amendments relate to the changes proposed in the Bill regarding the Part VIII process for the approval of local authority own development proposals, including social housing. The Bill proposes a number of key changes to the existing local authority own development approval processes in section 179 of the Planning and Development Act 2000. The...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Planning and Development (Housing) and Residential Tenancies Bill 2016: Committee Stage (Resumed) (13 Dec 2016)

Simon Coveney: I have some sympathy for that view and it was raised yesterday, or whenever I was there, at Fingal County Council. It was also raised in the Seanad. If the council had a meeting in August or September and maybe councillors were away on holidays then the council may not be able to get a majority of the members into the chamber, but there may be a majority at the meeting who want to make a...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Planning and Development (Housing) and Residential Tenancies Bill 2016: Committee Stage (Resumed) (13 Dec 2016)

Simon Coveney: We are trying to ensure that it is a fully democratic decision also. The recommendation that came to us from some of the local authorities was that if a Part VIII planning decision is to be made and the council cannot get a majority of the local authority to do that, then it must be asked if there is an issue there.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Planning and Development (Housing) and Residential Tenancies Bill 2016: Committee Stage (Resumed) (13 Dec 2016)

Simon Coveney: Yes.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Planning and Development (Housing) and Residential Tenancies Bill 2016: Committee Stage (Resumed) (13 Dec 2016)

Simon Coveney: Sometimes the opposite happens too where some people want to strategically vote against a Part VIII because it is in their area but the council as a whole recognises that it should be passed. I know that sounds cynical to anybody listening, but in my experience that does happen. I take the Deputy's point that if an issue is being debated in the council then a majority at the end of the...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Planning and Development (Housing) and Residential Tenancies Bill 2016: Committee Stage (Resumed) (13 Dec 2016)

Simon Coveney: Otherwise reserves are being brought in to make a decision who really have had nothing to do with it. On balance, I will accept the thrust of the amendment and we will accept the wording of it if we can check it first with the legal advisers if that is okay. We will accept the Deputy's wording on Report Stage. If it is not suitable we will bring forward a similar wording. The issue has...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Planning and Development (Housing) and Residential Tenancies Bill 2016: Committee Stage (Resumed) (13 Dec 2016)

Simon Coveney: This amendment relates to section 28 of the Planning and Development Act 2000. Section 28 provides that planning authorities shall have regard to guidelines issued by the Minister in the performance of their planning functions, that is, in the determination of planning applications and in the adoption of development plans, etc. Section 28 was amended in 2015 by the insertion of a new...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Planning and Development (Housing) and Residential Tenancies Bill 2016: Committee Stage (Resumed) (13 Dec 2016)

Simon Coveney: There are two issues, the policy decision that was made a number of years ago which was to ensure that national guidelines were being applied in Dublin. It is important to note that these are much more generous than the UK guidelines, including Northern Ireland. We are not talking about small boxy apartments. From memory, it was agreed to apply the national guidelines which we had...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Planning and Development (Housing) and Residential Tenancies Bill 2016: Committee Stage (Resumed) (13 Dec 2016)

Simon Coveney: I do not disagree with any of the points, but what is at issue is to have consistency across the country, or do we allow local authorities to do their own thing, whereby the size, restrictions and guidelines in Cork are different from those in Limerick, Dublin, Waterford or Galway? This happens if there is no ministerial policy in terms of the clarity on the guidelines for everything from...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Planning and Development (Housing) and Residential Tenancies Bill 2016: Committee Stage (Resumed) (13 Dec 2016)

Simon Coveney: Deputy, apartments cannot go below a certain size.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Planning and Development (Housing) and Residential Tenancies Bill 2016: Committee Stage (Resumed) (13 Dec 2016)

Simon Coveney: They may try to outdo each other for certain types of development, potentially.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Planning and Development (Housing) and Residential Tenancies Bill 2016: Committee Stage (Resumed) (13 Dec 2016)

Simon Coveney: I have amendment No. 133 first.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Planning and Development (Housing) and Residential Tenancies Bill 2016: Committee Stage (Resumed) (13 Dec 2016)

Simon Coveney: I will deal with amendment No. 133. I appreciate the sentiment behind Deputy Healy’s amendment but I am afraid that I cannot accept a blanket ban, essentially, on all court orders removing people from a property. I do not accept that such a provision is in place in Northern Ireland, the idea that nobody can be removed from a premises in Northern Ireland. I do not think that is the...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Planning and Development (Housing) and Residential Tenancies Bill 2016: Committee Stage (Resumed) (13 Dec 2016)

Simon Coveney: My understanding in respect of the Deputy's final question is that there is a legal view that interference with someone's property rights, in other words, the right to sell a property unencumbered, must be both proportionate and justified, irrespective of whether it applies to an individual or a fund which owns large numbers of properties. In other words, if the owner of 30 properties in one...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Planning and Development (Housing) and Residential Tenancies Bill 2016: Committee Stage (Resumed) (13 Dec 2016)

Simon Coveney: I do not think so.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Planning and Development (Housing) and Residential Tenancies Bill 2016: Committee Stage (Resumed) (13 Dec 2016)

Simon Coveney: I do not think so. There are many amendments there. Hopefully they are all answered.