Results 3,541-3,560 of 7,278 for speaker:Dick Roche

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

Dick Roche: The national development plan will be linked to the national spatial strategy. Senator Bannon referred to the BMW area and consistency is important. I am grateful for his positive response to the amendment.

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

Dick Roche: This amends the reference in the Seventh Schedule to electricity transmission lines to exclude any development to be considered under the section 182A consent process. This is necessary to ensure it is clear which consent procedure will apply to specific types of development and will prevent a perception of the use of two different consent processes for such lines. I would like consistency...

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

Dick Roche: I am sure everything the Senator heard from the Fianna Fáil Member must be correct. However, few Members in either House have an aversion to nuclear power that exceeds my own. I was a little late when we resumed the debate because I met the man who chaired the Chernobyl forum. I am more convinced, as each day passes, of the utter economic lunacy of nuclear power. All parties and groupings...

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

Dick Roche: I thank the Senator. The amendments propose a reduction in the thresholds for a number of categories mentioned in the Seventh Schedule, which largely reflect the EIA thresholds. They were, therefore, not selected on a whim. The thresholds were also carefully chosen to reflect what is considered to represent strategic infrastructural development and to ensure the board does not become...

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

Dick Roche: There could be a bidding process.

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

Dick Roche: The Senator seems to have made a career of tilting at windmills. There are a couple of other allusions to Don Quixote which I will leave to one side. He is right when he states that we need to look at generating electricity by wind farms. I am currently completing the planning guidelines for wind farms and I hope to publish these in the next few weeks. However, this Bill only deals with...

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

Dick Roche: These amendments will simply clarify the development associated with natural gas storage facilities of a certain specified size. Liquified natural gas facilities will be eligible for a new consent process set out in section 37(a). The amendment is simply aimed at clarification. The Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources has requested the amendment in order to ensure the...

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

Dick Roche: I accept the amendment and I am grateful to the Senator for drawing my attention to it.

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

Dick Roche: This amendment will modify section 41 of the 2000 Act. Section 41 provides that a planning authority or the board can specify a period longer than five years during which a grant of permission will be valid. The amendment will expand that power to cover the grants of permission by the board for strategic infrastructure proposals under the new consent process set out in the Bill. The amendment...

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

Dick Roche: Amendment No. 101 is a technical change to delete some unnecessary words and I commend it to the House.

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

Dick Roche: These are interesting amendments which propose to further restrict the rulings that the Supreme Court may make in cases under judicial review. While the amendment is broadly in line with what we are trying to achieve, it is be prudent to investigate whether difficulties would arise from such a restriction. With the agreement of Senator McCarthy, I will seek the opinion of the Office of the...

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

Dick Roche: I am not disposed to accept the amendment. As the Senator noted, the amendment seeks to amend the provisions setting out the panels from which members are appointed to a board by removing reference to the appointment of a civil servant from the Department. Essentially, the amendment means that no civil servant appointment would be made to the board. The new groupings of bodies from which...

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

Dick Roche: While Senator McCarthy is correct, a cogent reason exists for not accepting the amendment, tempted as I am to do so. At present, An Bord Pleanála only requires the payment of a fee where a public representative acts to make a submission or appeal in his or her own right. If the representative is simply supporting someone else's case, a fee is not required under the current system. This...

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

Dick Roche: These amendments make a number of small changes to section 21 of the Bill, which amends section 135 of the principal Act. The main amendment is amendment No. 108, the purpose of which is to enable a person holding an oral hearing to require any officer of the local authority, as opposed to a planning authority, to give information to the hearing. This is necessary to ensure that the person...

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

Dick Roche: Amendment No. 116 is also related. These amendments are linked to the strategic gas infrastructure consents, which we have already discussed. The amendments will transfer the power to decide on CPOs for major gas pipelines from the current consent body to the board. This is in line with similar changes to the 2000 Act on local authority CPOs in motorways. The Government's view is that the...

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

Dick Roche: May I finish the sentence? The board will still hold oral hearings on large, controversial cases, such as many strategic infrastructure projects where such hearings are not mandatory but clearly in the public interest. The board must have the discretion to use its judgement on the holding of oral hearings so that appropriate cases are given public hearing.

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

Dick Roche: This is a technical amendment to section 34, which replaces sections 37 to 47, inclusive, of the Transport (Railway Infrastructure) Act 2001. The amendment simply clarifies that the amendment is to that Act, as amended by the Railway Safety Act 2005. The 2005 Act amended the period of public consultation as set out in section 40 of the 2001 Act from 14 to 30 days. The Bill replaces this...

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

Dick Roche: The amendment is incorrectly worded but, rather than cause a delay, I will consider the matter with the Chief Parliamentary Counsel and revert to the Deputy, sorry the Senator, on Report Stage.

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

Dick Roche: The Senator made a valid point. If he does not press the amendment at this stage, I will revert to him on Report Stage because he may be correct that the wording needs to be tidied up. It would be appropriate to do so, given the additional emphasis being placed on heritage.

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

Dick Roche: The amendment seeks to require the Railway Procurement Agency or CIE to engage in bona fide reasonable efforts to acquire land by agreement before seeking a compulsory order. I do not propose to accept the amendment because, even if it was possible to determine with precision what is meant in practice by "bona fide reasonable efforts", we are not placing this requirement on any other body...