Results 3,521-3,540 of 7,278 for speaker:Dick Roche

Seanad: Planning and Development (Strategic Infrastructure) Bill 2006: Committee Stage. (3 May 2006)

Dick Roche: I share the Senator's passion for maximum consultation with local communities through their elected representatives. As I have outlined, and as the House welcomed, the Bill is noteworthy in that it provides a specific requirement for such consultation to take place. It provides very specifically that the views of councillors must be submitted in a separate document and not incorporated as an...

Seanad: Planning and Development (Strategic Infrastructure) Bill 2006: Committee Stage. (3 May 2006)

Dick Roche: Any measure that would strengthen democracy would be welcome to me but I do not want to go further on this matter than I have gone. The Bill is unique and has been recognised as such by the various local authority representatives and council groups. The Association of County and City Councils, LAMA and the AMAI have all welcomed it to some degree. There is no great point in pushing the matter...

Seanad: Planning and Development (Strategic Infrastructure) Bill 2006: Committee Stage. (3 May 2006)

Dick Roche: They say that hope springs eternal and that water will finally wear through even the hardest rock. While Senators were voting, I was discussing the words "situate" and "situated", and I discovered they are used interchangeably in other legislation. So I am prepared to accept the Senator's amendment, because he has been so good in pressing so many textual amendments, and it would not do any...

Seanad: Planning and Development (Strategic Infrastructure) Bill 2006: Committee Stage. (3 May 2006)

Dick Roche: I thank the Senator for proposing the amendment, which refers to an important new power that has been given to the board to attach a condition to a permission providing for community gain. This condition may take the form of provision of financing in whole or in part of a facility or service for the community hosting the proposed development. I recall Senator Bannon on another occasion making...

Seanad: Planning and Development (Strategic Infrastructure) Bill 2006: Committee Stage. (3 May 2006)

Dick Roche: It does. I understand the sentiment behind the Senator's proposition to delete the proportionality clause. I gave the amendment substantial consideration but I cannot accept it. I will explain my reason because the Senator deserves an explanation. A case arose a number of years ago where a council sought contributions which were disproportionate and the case was referred to An Bord Pleanála....

Seanad: Planning and Development (Strategic Infrastructure) Bill 2006: Committee Stage. (3 May 2006)

Dick Roche: I note the point the Senator is making but 18 weeks is probably the shortest feasible time for the board to get all its ducks in a row, all its decisions and the reports concerned. If a decision could be made in a shorter period, I would favour that. We have had some extraordinary cases of delays to work on infrastructure, which have frustrated the general public and caused public harm, and...

Seanad: Planning and Development (Strategic Infrastructure) Bill 2006: Committee Stage. (3 May 2006)

Dick Roche: I will commend Senator Bannon's humanity to his colleague in the other House, Deputy Bruton, who continuously excoriates the Government for what he sees as its profligacy in its spending of public funding, for example by recruiting excessive numbers of public servants. The issue of personnel, which has been raised by the Senator, is not immediately germane to the section of the Bill under...

Seanad: Planning and Development (Strategic Infrastructure) Bill 2006: Committee Stage. (3 May 2006)

Dick Roche: The Senator has made a fair point, although it is not directly related to the Bill. As planning is a culturally specific activity, An Bord Pleanála and the local authorities have to take care when recruiting staff. Some of the planning staff from outside the State are excellent and very welcome. If they were not available, we would find it difficult to fill vacancies from within the skill...

Seanad: Planning and Development (Strategic Infrastructure) Bill 2006: Committee Stage. (3 May 2006)

Dick Roche: It is a fair point. The influx of skilled people into this country is welcome because it is a positive thing. If one considers the decisions which have been made at EU level in recent days — I accept that this is outside the immediate context — it is likely that countries which have been less progressive will have every reason to regret their decisions. It is not a good idea to close...

Seanad: Planning and Development (Strategic Infrastructure) Bill 2006: Committee Stage. (3 May 2006)

Dick Roche: The amendment puts me in a rather peculiar position as a Minister. The Opposition is proposing that the Minister should be given more power, in effect, but I am not prepared to agree to that. The Senator is proposing to empower the Minister to give a direction to the board to prioritise a particular application. The general point I have been making is that we have put in place a planning...

Seanad: Planning and Development (Strategic Infrastructure) Bill 2006: Committee Stage. (3 May 2006)

Dick Roche: This is a textual amendment, as suggested by the Parliamentary Counsel. It is simply to delete an unnecessary cross-reference as a proposed development. It is already defined in subsection (1) and does not impact on the substance of the Bill. It is very much like the editing job Senator Bannon wanted to do in so many other areas. I am hopeful this will have the approval of the House.

Seanad: Planning and Development (Strategic Infrastructure) Bill 2006: Committee Stage. (3 May 2006)

Dick Roche: The amendment to section 182A(4)(b) provides that an application for the consent and the accompanying environmental impact statement, EIS, for an electricity transmission line will have to be sent to the local authority in an area as well as to prescribed bodies. This refers back to something Senator Bannon was highlighting earlier, namely, the importance of having a cross-reference to ensure...

Seanad: Planning and Development (Strategic Infrastructure) Bill 2006: Committee Stage. (3 May 2006)

Dick Roche: The amendment to section 182A(5)(a), relating to electricity transmission lines, will allow the board to ask for further information as regards the consequences of proper planning and substantial sustainable development of the area concerned. The current wording allows the board to seek further information only as regards the effects of the proposed development on the environment. This...

Seanad: Planning and Development (Strategic Infrastructure) Bill 2006: Committee Stage. (3 May 2006)

Dick Roche: I do not believe so. It is appropriate that information such as this should be available to those who want to have a debate or a discussion on it. The Senator is right in suggesting that the energy supply situation is very important. That is why transmission lines are being brought into the Bill and why I am very pleased that the House is so positive about that development. At the same time,...

Seanad: Planning and Development (Strategic Infrastructure) Bill 2006: Committee Stage. (3 May 2006)

Dick Roche: Perhaps the Senator misunderstood. I said I had bitter experience in the past in this regard.

Seanad: Planning and Development (Strategic Infrastructure) Bill 2006: Committee Stage. (3 May 2006)

Dick Roche: No, it did not.

Seanad: Planning and Development (Strategic Infrastructure) Bill 2006: Committee Stage. (3 May 2006)

Dick Roche: I was actually a Deputy at the time. It helped to make me a Deputy, but I nearly lost my house over it.

Seanad: Planning and Development (Strategic Infrastructure) Bill 2006: Committee Stage. (3 May 2006)

Dick Roche: No, that is not the intention here.

Seanad: Planning and Development (Strategic Infrastructure) Bill 2006: Committee Stage. (3 May 2006)

Dick Roche: This is an important set of amendments. It is the first time that pipelines will be brought within the planning system. That is an appropriate move. Amendment No. 86 is a major amendment to the Bill which I flagged during my Second Stage speech. It inserts three new sections into the 2000 Act, sections 182C, 182D and 182E. This provides for a new consent procedure for major gas pipelines and...

Seanad: Planning and Development (Strategic Infrastructure) Bill 2006: Committee Stage. (3 May 2006)

Dick Roche: The Senator will be known from here on as the "Don Quixote" of Longford town.