Results 26,021-26,040 of 40,897 for speaker:Simon Coveney

Select Committee on Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2016: Committee Stage (12 Apr 2017)

Simon Coveney: We had a long discussion earlier on the powers of the Minister versus the one the new office needed to have. We spent a good hour discussing and teasing out the issues involved. On appointments, whether it is a minority or a majority Government, Ministers and the Government need to take responsibility for certain matters, one of which is the finalisation of a decision-making process in...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2016: Committee Stage (12 Apr 2017)

Simon Coveney: I move amendment No. 56:56. In page 43, between lines 34 and 35, to insert the following: "Amendment of section 7 (planning register) of Principal Act 7. Section 7 of the Principal Act is amended in subsection (2) by substituting the following for paragraph (e):“(e) the complete decision of the planning authority in respect of any such application, including any conditions imposed...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2016: Committee Stage (12 Apr 2017)

Simon Coveney: I do not necessarily want to go into the issues concerning Dún Laoghaire but I will deal with the point generally. The 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...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2016: Committee Stage (12 Apr 2017)

Simon Coveney: With respect, the Deputy is misinterpreting what I am saying.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2016: Committee Stage (12 Apr 2017)

Simon Coveney: We are reviewing the rural planning guidelines. That process is under way at present. However, we must also try to ensure that we create communities and clusters that are much easier to serve in terms of infrastructure, amenity and all the other things that can be done in towns and villages but which are much more demanding of the State in the context of ribbon development. That is not to...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2016: Committee Stage (12 Apr 2017)

Simon Coveney: There are loads of apartments that go way above that minimum standard.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2016: Committee Stage (12 Apr 2017)

Simon Coveney: It has to be a mix of both.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2016: Committee Stage (12 Apr 2017)

Simon Coveney: I do not think anybody could accuse me of not trying to get local authorities to use their initiative in terms of new ways of building communities. We are encouraging them to do that in terms of how they use publicly-owned land banks. We are encouraging them to create partnerships between private builders and designers, to integrate local authority needs with private housing demand. We are...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2016: Committee Stage (12 Apr 2017)

Simon Coveney: He is not saying the minimum has to be the same as the maximum. He is saying that the minimum standard becomes a floor. We have to allow people to apply to build at that standard as opposed to moving it higher. As the Deputy probably knows, 44% of people on social housing lists are living on their own. Some 25% of households in Ireland are single-occupancy households. I know that because...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2016: Committee Stage (12 Apr 2017)

Simon Coveney: We can keep going as far as I am concerned. I have no need for a break.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2016: Committee Stage (12 Apr 2017)

Simon Coveney: I move amendment No. 67: In page 46, to delete lines 34 to 38 and substitute the following:“ “(ka) facilitating the making and processing by electronic means of—(i) planning applications, appeals, referrals, applications for approval, submissions and consents under this Act, and (ii) the payment of fees, the issuing of decisions and setting out of requirements to which...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2016: Committee Stage (12 Apr 2017)

Simon Coveney: We are doing a number of things on that issue. First of all, we are going to have a register of builders in the future. That is mandatory. A builder will not be able to build in Ireland if he or she is not on the register. If people are removed from the register, that will obviously have very serious implications for their business. It will be non-viable. That is the first thing. That...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2016: Committee Stage (12 Apr 2017)

Simon Coveney: That is something we are catering for. Apparently, we will deal with that under amendments Nos. 69 and 76. I will get to it in a few minutes.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2016: Committee Stage (12 Apr 2017)

Simon Coveney: This amendment in the name of Deputy Ryan would have the effect of inserting a requirement in the planning code that planning applications be refused where the development proposed would be contrary to the water framework directive because it might cause deterioration in water quality or the status of a water body, thereby jeopardising the attainment of good chemical status of water, as...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2016: Committee Stage (12 Apr 2017)

Simon Coveney: I have met farming bodies on this. We have an active consultation process under way for my Department to prepare a high-level guidance document for planning authorities on the relationship between physical planning and river basin management planning for the purpose of the development of river basin management plans under the water framework directive. Given the integration of the...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2016: Committee Stage (12 Apr 2017)

Simon Coveney: Yes, my understanding from what I am being told here is that, further to the publication of the Weser case, it is evidence that further guidance is needed for planning authorities to tighten up and standardise consistency in development plans across the country in respect of the water framework directive. We need to get some guidance from the European Commission on the back of that judgment....

Select Committee on Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2016: Committee Stage (12 Apr 2017)

Simon Coveney: We also need to get guidance from the European Commission.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2016: Committee Stage (12 Apr 2017)

Simon Coveney: I suppose so but if we are to mention the water framework directive specifically as a consideration that needs to be accounted for by the new planning regulator, that will clearly deal with that broadly. We can talk to the Deputy about that but I am not in a position, in the absence of the guidance from the European Commission, it is really hard to know what we should be putting in.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2016: Committee Stage (12 Apr 2017)

Simon Coveney: There is another directive and we debated that earlier. We will try to accommodate that in the Bill. The Deputy is absolutely spot-on on that. We have said the officials are going to consider it.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2016: Committee Stage (12 Apr 2017)

Simon Coveney: There is a flooding directive, and we discussed earlier whether we should name it specifically in the legislation.