Results 7,601-7,620 of 15,555 for speaker:Eoghan Murphy

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Departmental Strategies (12 Jul 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: Pillar 5 of the Government's Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness is specifically focused on Utilising Existing Housing Stock, with a key objective of ensuring that the existing vacant housing stock throughout the country and across all forms of tenure, in both the public and private sectors, is used to the optimum degree possible. In this regard, Action 5.1 of...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Electoral Reform (12 Jul 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: The Electoral (Amendment) (Voting at 16) Bill 2016 provides for amendments to sections 9 and 10 of the Electoral Act 1992 in order to reduce, to sixteen years, the age at which a person would be entitled to register to vote at local and European elections. The issues that arise in considering a reduction in the voting age more generally, and not just for local and European elections, are...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Wind Energy Guidelines (12 Jul 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: My predecessor as Minister, in conjunction with my colleague, the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, recently announced a "preferred draft approach" to the review of the 2006 Wind Energy Development Guidelines. A copy of the announcement is available on my Department’s website at the following link: . The “preferred draft...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Programme for Government Implementation (12 Jul 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: The Programme for a Partnership Government sets out the Government’s commitment to ensure that the needs of people with disabilities are incorporated into all future housing policies.  While addressing the needs of people with disabilities is already well established in housing policies, the commitment in the Government Programme provides a platform to consolidate and build on the...

Planning and Development (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2017: Order for Second Stage (13 Jul 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: I move: "That Second Stage be taken now."

Planning and Development (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2017: Second Stage (13 Jul 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time." Obtaining planning permission is one of the key steps in enabling housing providers to produce the homes we all need. The process of obtaining planning permission takes time, reflecting the importance of getting the location and design of new development right. Once permission is granted, it normally lasts for five years to enable the...

Planning and Development (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2017: Second Stage (13 Jul 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: I will speak directly to the purpose of the Bill in front of us. I will not go into the wider issues people have raised because time is an issue and because we will have oral questions on a number of the issues during Question Time later this evening or early tomorrow morning, depending on how things go. The amendments process will give me a chance to speak in more detail on some particular...

Planning and Development (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2017: Committee and Remaining Stages (13 Jul 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: Due to the drafting and construction of section 28 with the two separate provisions, it is not possible to specifically commence the second provision without also commencing the first. That is the mistake that is there, I suppose, in legislation. It was always the intention to commence them separately in a staggered way but because of how they were originally drafted in the Bill and then...

Planning and Development (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2017: Committee and Remaining Stages (13 Jul 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: It is important to note that section 28(1) makes a permanent change to section 42. When it is commenced, that permanent change takes place. It actually places quite a significant burden on stakeholders in the industry because of what it requires, which is that extension of the duration would no longer apply where an environmental impact assessment or an AA was required in respect of the...

Planning and Development (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2017: Committee and Remaining Stages (13 Jul 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: The risk is that the legal challenge might be to us, were we not to give enough time to people in this situation to be aware of the changes that were coming meaning that they would then need new permission in that circumstance.

Planning and Development (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2017: Committee and Remaining Stages (13 Jul 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: The purpose of a second extension of duration is to provide certainty to those people who are currently building to make sure they can finish those builds, be they developments of 20, 30, 40, 100 or 200 houses, the completion of some of which, even though they are substantially developed already, will still take a number of years. I cannot accept this amendment because the extension of...

Planning and Development (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2017: Committee and Remaining Stages (13 Jul 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: My advice is that this would create too much uncertainty in what was meant to be a technical extension process to allow developments that have already been substantially built to be completed, and to get that second extension as per the original planning permission, however that might have been phased. It is to have that certainty element. We are not just talking about getting 20 more...

Planning and Development (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2017: Committee and Remaining Stages (13 Jul 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: The Deputy spoke to amendment No. 5. It provides for home builders in the application for an extension of duration to set out reasons the development cannot be completed as envisaged. I will accept that amendment if the Deputy believes it will add value to the process because it is a good amendment. I will speak to amendments Nos. 6 to 8, inclusive, together. This is the idea of the...

Planning and Development (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2017: Committee and Remaining Stages (13 Jul 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: I would not have combined some of the amendments as they have been combined. If we consider a separate amendment that has been tabled, I believe, by Deputy Ryan, it appears to open up a possibility of a third extension, which we do not want to allow for in this Bill. We want people to go to their local authorities to seek a second extension, the local authority to make a judgment call on...

Planning and Development (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2017: Committee and Remaining Stages (13 Jul 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: The Deputy is absolutely right that the two things are not disconnected in terms of allowing and facilitating developers to construct their buildings and having homes for people to move into and to live in. When we address this measure, we are not just doing so for one part of this equation but for everyone involved, so houses can be built and finished and people can move in and live in...

Planning and Development (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2017: Committee and Remaining Stages (13 Jul 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: This is a very specific amendment in and of itself. It fulfils the intention of the House in an Act that was previously passed but could not be commenced because of a technical drafting error. The risk in accepting these amendments is to open it up wider than was the original intention of the section when it was enacted and it risks turning an extension of a duration process into a whole...

Planning and Development (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2017: Committee and Remaining Stages (13 Jul 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: We have to divorce the first and second parts of section 28, which is difficult given its construction. In the second part, we are talking about original permissions that did not require an EIA at the time. This is a technical extension to that permission. The intention of this Bill is not to open up a second consent process, which is what the amendment could do, and if we were to accept...

Planning and Development (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2017: Committee and Remaining Stages (13 Jul 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: To answer Deputy Ó Broin's point about the article he cited and the potential impact in that regard, no, that is not the case. We do not believe there is a legal risk regarding the points Deputy Ryan made about the Aarhus Convention. In some ways this is related to amendment No. 12, which we will discuss in a moment. There is the idea that one could potentially open up a situation...

Planning and Development (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2017: Committee and Remaining Stages (13 Jul 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: While I absolutely understand the point Deputy Ó Broin makes as to why he has tabled amendment No. 11, the difficulty with it is that in the action plan launched last summer, a commitment was given to people for whom permission would expire between the intention as stated in the action plan and the actual enactment of the legislation and the commencement of the order. They would be...

Planning and Development (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2017: Committee and Remaining Stages (13 Jul 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: To be clear about amendment No. 11, permissions which would have lapsed after July 2016, when the plan was published, can be reactivated under the provisions of this Bill, but they must apply within six months of the commencement, which is when the President signs the Bill. We have addressed the substance of amendment No. 15 when speaking about other amendments. The purpose of this Bill...