Results 3,121-3,140 of 16,492 for speaker:Ciarán Lynch

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Decision-Making Processes: Discussion with An Bord Pleanála (9 Oct 2012)

Ciarán Lynch: I need questions, please.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Decision-Making Processes: Discussion with An Bord Pleanála (9 Oct 2012)

Ciarán Lynch: We are trying for questions rather than Second Stage debates.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Decision-Making Processes: Discussion with An Bord Pleanála (9 Oct 2012)

Ciarán Lynch: Before I invite Senator Landy to speak, I will stay on the point about the 18-week period for decisions. Later, I will talk about judicial reviews. The board is supposed to make decisions within a statutory objective period of 18 weeks. In the 2004-05 period, just prior to the peak of the property bubble, the board's success rate in this regard was 85%. While the bubble was collapsing,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Decision-Making Processes: Discussion with An Bord Pleanála (9 Oct 2012)

Ciarán Lynch: Is it more of a bottleneck than a backlog?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Decision-Making Processes: Discussion with An Bord Pleanála (9 Oct 2012)

Ciarán Lynch: We will park the issue of whether it is a backlog or bottleneck. When we meet with Dr. Kelly next year, we hope to see the board moving well past the 90% figure if it is operating at an optimum level. If the board has its full complement of staff and is meeting regularly, we should be seeing a significant improvement upon 81%; the percentage should be around the mid-90s.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Decision-Making Processes: Discussion with An Bord Pleanála (9 Oct 2012)

Ciarán Lynch: I have one question for Dr. Kelly before I bring in Senator Landy. Based on the current variables with regard to appeals coming in and the number of staff, Dr. Kelly is telling us that the difficulty in freeing up that bottleneck lies in the staffing of the board, that there is a bottleneck as opposed to a backlog and that if the board has its optimum number of meetings over the next 12...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Decision-Making Processes: Discussion with An Bord Pleanála (9 Oct 2012)

Ciarán Lynch: We will be naming it. I am just waiting for it.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Decision-Making Processes: Discussion with An Bord Pleanála (9 Oct 2012)

Ciarán Lynch: I will deal with that issue towards the end of the meeting. I am trying to deal with the macro issues now and we will deal with the local issues later on.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Decision-Making Processes: Discussion with An Bord Pleanála (9 Oct 2012)

Ciarán Lynch: The question is whether they have a statutory function.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Decision-Making Processes: Discussion with An Bord Pleanála (9 Oct 2012)

Ciarán Lynch: I call Deputy Kitt and ask him to focus on questions, as another group is due to appear before the committee later.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Decision-Making Processes: Discussion with An Bord Pleanála (9 Oct 2012)

Ciarán Lynch: Does the Senator have a question?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Decision-Making Processes: Discussion with An Bord Pleanála (9 Oct 2012)

Ciarán Lynch: We are under time pressure as there is a delegation from Canada coming later. If the Senator is not going to comment on certain issues, please move on to the next question.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Decision-Making Processes: Discussion with An Bord Pleanála (9 Oct 2012)

Ciarán Lynch: The Senator has indicated she does not want to comment on the issue so please move to the next subject.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Decision-Making Processes: Discussion with An Bord Pleanála (9 Oct 2012)

Ciarán Lynch: Deputy, I will take all the questions together. The Deputy asked that question and there are other members indicating their wish to speak. Dr. Kelly will take it when she is wrapping up.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Decision-Making Processes: Discussion with An Bord Pleanála (9 Oct 2012)

Ciarán Lynch: Perhaps Dr. Kelly would deal with Deputy Humphreys's question. I and Senator Landy will ask a supplementary question afterwards.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Decision-Making Processes: Discussion with An Bord Pleanála (9 Oct 2012)

Ciarán Lynch: Main objectors?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Decision-Making Processes: Discussion with An Bord Pleanála (9 Oct 2012)

Ciarán Lynch: I wish to bring the meeting to an end before we are called for a vote. Judicial reviews are prohibitively expensive, with the cost for an individual, an organisation, or a council running into hundreds of thousands of euro. It is critical that An Bord Pleanála gets its decision right in the first instance. When a council has refused planning permission on the grounds that the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Decision-Making Processes: Discussion with An Bord Pleanála (9 Oct 2012)

Ciarán Lynch: They are that proposed development is of strategic and national importance; conflicting objectives in the development plan; permission for opposed development should be granted having regard to regional planning guidelines in the area; and permission for proposed development should be granted, having regard to these criteria.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Decision-Making Processes: Discussion with An Bord Pleanála (9 Oct 2012)

Ciarán Lynch: Would an An Bord Pleanála's view of a decision of a local authority be based on whether the local authority's decision was based on a material contravention or that the development would contravene the policies and objectives? Would An Bord Pleanála take a very distinct view on it?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Decision-Making Processes: Discussion with An Bord Pleanála (9 Oct 2012)

Ciarán Lynch: If a council refuses a development. An Bord Pleanála looks at the council's reasoning for the refusal and because a material contravention is distinct from a contravention on policies and objectives, would it approach therm from a different perspective?