Results 18,561-18,580 of 18,738 for speaker:Michael McDowell

Seanad: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (15 Jul 2024)

Michael McDowell: Through the Chair, I am suggesting that there probably are categories of things the Minister of the day will want to have a say on in this regard. If somebody wants to use a premises for a particular use, the Minister will make regulations stating that such an individual must get planning permission. I do not see how it matters what the premises were beforehand, however. That is the point...

Seanad: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (15 Jul 2024)

Michael McDowell: Whatever, yes.

Seanad: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (15 Jul 2024)

Michael McDowell: That is one example. I will take Senator Martin's point, however. For instance, a Minister may think that there should be planning permission for betting shops and fish and chip shops. Those are two things that a reasonable Minister might decide the residents of a road, or owners of neighbouring shops, have a right to be consulted on because the nature of those two businesses causes...

Seanad: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (15 Jul 2024)

Michael McDowell: It seems section 8 seeks to criminalise short-term lets in a rent pressure zone. It deals with the criminal aspect whereas section 7 deals with what amounts to a change of use. I do not think there is a conflict between the two.

Seanad: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (15 Jul 2024)

Michael McDowell: I want clarity on this. Why is the first use being prescribed in order that the second use be prescribed? I want clarity and some explanation of why we are doing this. We are saying that a change from one prescribed use to another is a change of use, which will require planning permission. I want to know why it matters what it was before it becomes a settlement item. Maybe what we are...

Seanad: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (15 Jul 2024)

Michael McDowell: Previously prescribed in relation to this?

Seanad: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (15 Jul 2024)

Michael McDowell: I hope we get an explanation on Report Stage

Seanad: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (15 Jul 2024)

Michael McDowell: A number of things arise in relation to section 8 as it stands. I know we are not discussing the section at this stage, but it is worthwhile to point out that it refers to short-term lettings and it defines them as "the letting of a house or a part of a house for any period not exceeding 14 days, and includes a licence that permits the licensee to enter and reside in the house or part...

Seanad: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (15 Jul 2024)

Michael McDowell: Let us suppose someone is a tenant of a house in Dublin and it is in a rent pressure zone. The individual and two others share the house and his two mates go off to the Continent for two months on holiday and that person is left with the house. As I read it, short-term letting means the letting of a house or part of a house or the licence of a part of a house. If that person takes in...

Seanad: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (15 Jul 2024)

Michael McDowell: I have problems with section 11 which I think the Minister of State should take on board and reconsider this provision. I say that because we are on Committee Stage. There may be Report Stage and the whole Bill has to go back to the Dáil. There is time and no urgency to say this section cannot be looked at. This section reads: A relevant declaration shall be conclusive evidence of...

Seanad: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (16 Jul 2024)

Michael McDowell: I note the Minister of State is stepping in in these circumstances. There are a few things I want to say about section 11 but I do not want to overly delay the House.

Seanad: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (16 Jul 2024)

Michael McDowell: I just want to point out that section 11(1) provides that a declaration that something is or is not an unauthorised user is conclusive of the matter stated therein in proceedings brought by an enforcement authority only against the person who requested the relevant declaration. There are two exceptions to that. One is where that person knowingly misled the planning authority, or the...

Seanad: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (16 Jul 2024)

Michael McDowell: I accept what my friends are saying. I do not want to delay proceedings or extend matters by calling for a walk through vote. We have to mark our disagreement with the section as it stands, however, and that must be done by means of a vote.

Seanad: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (16 Jul 2024)

Michael McDowell: The section is not agreed because it extends the ban on producing certificates to certificates that will be issued before this Bill comes into operation. It is retrospective in effect insofar as it catches them. That is why I am not agreeing it, but I am not going to ask for another vote.

Seanad: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (16 Jul 2024)

Michael McDowell: I support Senator Currie’s amendment. This is simply about notifying the affected community – it can be a small community – where it is proposed to put a line of poles along the side of a road. I have experienced this in County Roscommon. Very reasonably, the broadband contractors notified local householders, including me, about their proposal to erect a third line of...

Seanad: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (16 Jul 2024)

Michael McDowell: I am very glad that we have got to this point of the debate on this legislation. It is time to reflect for a little bit on what is involved in this Bill. This Bill's origins, as I see it, are a project spearheaded in a big way by my successor as Attorney General, Mr. Paul Gallagher, to restate and consolidate the planning law of the country. His office, in fact, took over in large measure...

Seanad: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (16 Jul 2024)

Michael McDowell: The first amendment proposed by Senator Boyhan and me reflects his reasonable nature. I would be more radical than that. I do not believe in ten-year plans. I do not believe in ten-year plans that can be extended to 12 years. In particular, I do not believe in plans of this kind which are effectively pre-cooked by the Office of the Planning Regulator and, in effect, preordained in large...

Seanad: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (16 Jul 2024)

Michael McDowell: Can I reply to that?

Seanad: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (16 Jul 2024)

Michael McDowell: I have been asked whether I read section 58. I read it, but I read on to what happens when a variation is proposed. First, it has to be sent to the OPR for examination. If the OPR decides it contravenes, in the OPR’s so-called independent view, any of the national planning criteria we spoke about earlier the Bill provides that a draft direction can be cooked up by the OPR to tell...

Seanad: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (16 Jul 2024)

Michael McDowell: -----the decision of the OPR.