Results 11,521-11,540 of 15,092 for speaker:Eoin Ó Broin

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (20 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: I will move on to amendment No. 171, the next one.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (20 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: Perfect.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (20 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: I want to pick up on amendment No. 129. The Minister of State's response is astonishing.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (20 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: Let us think of the national planning framework as the development plan for the State, because that is what it is. It is a statutory plan that is produced following extensive consultation and deliberation to set in place not a set of policies but a set of legally binding planning requirements which then feed into the national development plan, exactly as the Chair said, but also have a...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (20 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: This is legislation for 30 years so we have to think not just of this Government or the next Government, but of Governments after that. Let us imagine that the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, is in opposition and that the extensive consultation process was not undertaken, or imagine that there was an extensive consultation process but the issues raised were fundamentally ignored by the...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (20 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: I am conscious that we will not get this discussion finished this evening.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (20 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: It really sounds like the Minister of State is trying to convince himself rather than us.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (20 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: I have a very brief point of clarification. Deputy McAuliffe's defence of his colleagues is admirable. My point is a different one. I am not at all suggesting that members of Government parties should not criticise a Government. In fact, I would encourage them to do it as often as possible. My point is a fundamentally different one. I used the example of the Planning Regulator because...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: I will read the Minister of State one of the key recommendations of the executive summary of the Mahon tribunal report, which is directly relevant to this amendment. Recommendation 1.09 states: As is clear from the above, at national level, both the NDP and the N[ational] S[patial] S[trategy, the forerunner to the national planning framework] play a key role in the planning system....

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: With respect, that was not the question. We know the position remains unchanged and we are not asking the Minister of State to change it. Deputy O'Callaghan and I are asking a very simple question. The Mahon tribunal recommended a vote of the Oireachtas. In its wisdom, the Government has chosen not to have such a vote. I am asking the Minister of State why this is the case.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: First of all, the Minister of State has not answered the question, so I will repeat it at the end.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: I have the floor. The Minister of State has not answered the question and I will repeat it again for clarity at the end. The Minister of State has repeated what the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, told us yesterday, which I accept is the Government's position. I am not disputing it. We have a planning regulator because the Mahon tribunal report recommended one. It also recommended...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: It is really important to understand why the Mahon tribunal made the recommendations it made. This tribunal took a very long time and involved very considerable deliberation. I do not believe any of its recommendations were made frivolously. Recommendation 1.09 says very clearly that the Minister, now the Minister for housing, "enjoys considerable discretion in determining ... [the] scope...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: That is precisely my focus.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: Absolutely not. It is a separate proposition. I will make the following comment but I do not expect the Minister of State to respond. I just want to put on record that it is remarkable that the Government has not provided a reason for stating that it has made a decision not to allow Oireachtas votes, particularly in light of the fact that it is so important-----

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: I have the floor, with the greatest of respect. What is happening is remarkable, particularly in view the fact that the Mahon tribunal report contained a key recommendation in this regard. However, people can make their own judgments on that matter. One suspects that the decision that there will not be a vote is political in nature as opposed to one having anything to do with planning or...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: Amendments Nos. 176 and 180. They relate to section 23, which deals with the national planning statement. The first thing to put on the record is that the national planning statement is one of the very substantial innovations in this Bill. Whereas a great deal of what is in the Bill, as we have discussed, comprises carryovers or modest amendments to previous legislation, this is something...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: I will stick to my two amendments that we are discussing, namely, amendments Nos. 176 and 180.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: It is specifically the procedure I wish to speak to because the procedure is different.