Results 15,661-15,680 of 15,725 for speaker:Eoin Ó Broin

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Multiple Unit Developments: Discussion (14 Oct 2025)

Eoin Ó Broin: If we are going to write to the Minister for justice to ask him to expedite legislation to transfer responsibility for the MUD Act, maybe we could write to the Minister for housing and urge him to do everything he can to expedite funding for those interim fire safety projects.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Planning and Development (Exempted Development (Act of 2000)) Regulations 2025: Discussion (14 Oct 2025)

Eoin Ó Broin: Deputy Cooney asked two of the questions I was going to ask about the first of the regulations. I fully support the proposal. I would also be open to not having an end date. Obviously, there is a need to keep these things under review-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Planning and Development (Exempted Development (Act of 2000)) Regulations 2025: Discussion (14 Oct 2025)

Eoin Ó Broin: -----but if it is working and it is producing good-quality permanent homes for people, we would support anything that could make it easier for people to turn vacant properties, particularly above-the-shop units, into residential accommodation. We would support the Minister of State in that. I have a number of technical questions. I better run through them all in one go and then he can...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Planning and Development (Exempted Development (Act of 2000)) Regulations 2025: Discussion (14 Oct 2025)

Eoin Ó Broin: Can he give us a bit more information about that? Is there a reason the environmental assessment is not conducted prior to the bringing of the regulations to us? Again, this is just for my own information. The final two questions are on the other farming regulations. There was one on fencing, and anaerobic digestion. They are not being dealt with today. We are going to get those at a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Planning and Development (Exempted Development (Act of 2000)) Regulations 2025: Discussion (14 Oct 2025)

Eoin Ó Broin: They do not change. They remain the same.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Planning and Development (Exempted Development (Act of 2000)) Regulations 2025: Discussion (14 Oct 2025)

Eoin Ó Broin: The next point was the completion of the environmental assessments prior to signing. Will the Minister of State explain what that is and why it is not done before these regulations are brought to us?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Planning and Development (Exempted Development (Act of 2000)) Regulations 2025: Discussion (14 Oct 2025)

Eoin Ó Broin: Does this mean that if the outcome of that environmental assessment involves negatives, the Minster of State would not be able to sign these regulations into statutory instruments?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Planning and Development (Exempted Development (Act of 2000)) Regulations 2025: Discussion (14 Oct 2025)

Eoin Ó Broin: When the Minister of State gets the environmental assessment, could there be outcomes that would prevent him from signing these regulations into law and that would mean he would have to do something additional in respect of them? This is just to give the committee a sense of what the assessment involves.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Planning and Development (Exempted Development (Act of 2000)) Regulations 2025: Discussion (14 Oct 2025)

Eoin Ó Broin: I have no challenge to any that. From a scrutiny point of view, however, it would be valuable, assuming that the exercise is finished, if the Department officials were able to provide the committee with a note on the outcome of that process or even a copy of the assessment. That would be useful. We are being asked to approve something in theory, by way of a motion in the Dáil tomorrow...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Planning and Development (Exempted Development (Act of 2000)) Regulations 2025: Discussion (14 Oct 2025)

Eoin Ó Broin: My final points were on the other farming regulations and the other regulations.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Planning and Development (Exempted Development (Act of 2000)) Regulations 2025: Discussion (14 Oct 2025)

Eoin Ó Broin: The fencing and the anaerobic digestion, which were covered in the public consultation.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Planning and Development (Exempted Development (Act of 2000)) Regulations 2025: Discussion (14 Oct 2025)

Eoin Ó Broin: With the Chair's indulgence, can I ask whether the Minister of State knows the number of sub-themes that these are being broken into and whether there is an estimated timeline for the residential ones that are coming next?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Planning and Development (Exempted Development (Act of 2000)) Regulations 2025: Discussion (14 Oct 2025)

Eoin Ó Broin: I am not going to catch the Minister of State out. I am genuinely asking about the scheduling of this.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Planning and Development (Exempted Development (Act of 2000)) Regulations 2025: Discussion (14 Oct 2025)

Eoin Ó Broin: How many other themes will there be roughly?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Planning and Development (Exempted Development (Act of 2000)) Regulations 2025: Discussion (14 Oct 2025)

Eoin Ó Broin: Will the Minister of State help me to visualise 1,000 cu. m? He could perhaps do it in terms of the measurement of the floor space just so I can get a sense of the size, first of all. Would it be 100 sq. m of floor space?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Planning and Development (Exempted Development (Act of 2000)) Regulations 2025: Discussion (14 Oct 2025)

Eoin Ó Broin: Okay. I do not know how it works in the Department of agriculture, but typically with exempted developments, there would not be a local authority building control inspection, for example. There would not be a check-up to see if the building was built in accordance with building control. The responsibility for that rests with the person who constructs the building. This is not meant as an...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Planning and Development (Exempted Development (Act of 2000)) Regulations 2025: Discussion (14 Oct 2025)

Eoin Ó Broin: That is a paper certificate. Is there anybody on site checking that where there is exempted development and 60% finance, the structure is being built properly? I would have thought this is a building control issue. Is it a building control issue for the building control unit in the Department or does the Department of agriculture get involved? I suspect most of our building control unit...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Planning and Development (Exempted Development (Act of 2000)) Regulations 2025: Discussion (14 Oct 2025)

Eoin Ó Broin: An inspection of the facility?