Results 2,321-2,340 of 6,904 for speaker:Cian O'Callaghan

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Cian O'Callaghan: He has not yet. Has he addressed amendment No. 201?

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Cian O'Callaghan: No. I will speak on amendment No. 201 seeing as Deputy Ó Broin has, if that is okay?

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Cian O'Callaghan: I will speak to amendment No. 136, and also to amendment No. 201. On amendment No. 136 specifically, Ireland declared a biodiversity emergency in 2019. Given the habitat loss and fragmentations from the main drivers of biodiversity loss in Ireland, this should be an objective of the national planning framework alongside the other objectives here to protect, enhance and, indeed, restore our...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Cian O'Callaghan: I welcome that. The real difficulty I have is that the time on Report Stage could be highly limited. We want to ask questions about, comment on and improve what the Minister of State comes forward with. It may simply be timed out on us. The Government usually guillotines Report Stage, which means there are only two, three or four hours when we need much longer. We probably will not even...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Cian O'Callaghan: I will keep this short. I have no issue if the Minister of State comes to Report Stage with measures to improve this Bill and these provisions to bring them into line with the national biodiversity action plan. That is great and I am very supportive of that. That does not mean that the wording I proposed cannot be adopted now. There is an absolute omission in the Bill. There are no...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Cian O'Callaghan: That was amendment No. 136, but I was also speaking to amendment No. 201, which is similar. It was mainly amendment No. 136, however.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Cian O'Callaghan: Will the Minister of State be back here at 6 p.m.?

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Cian O'Callaghan: Before we break can I ask a very short question which is very relevant?

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Cian O'Callaghan: Can we go for another few minutes while we have the Minister of State here? Is that okay?

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Cian O'Callaghan: I welcome the Minister of State's commitment to address this. The amendments we brought forward do not just talk about protecting and conserving biodiversity. They also, very importantly, refer to enhancing biodiversity and restoration. Will the Minister of State give us a commitment that when he brings the Bill back on Report Stage, it will not just refer to protecting and conserving...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Cian O'Callaghan: In regard to amendment No. 410 I struggle to see what the unintended consequences of our amendment would be. It is clear and straightforward. SAAOs are very important. Having them listed here in the obligation to prepare a strategy for conservation of natural and built heritage is an omission. It is missing. We are correcting this flaw in the Bill. What could be the unintended...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Cian O'Callaghan: This is quite a distinct section of the Bill. It is literally just listing the obligations for preparing strategies for conservation. It is listing this as one of the areas. I cannot see how it impacts on other parts of the Bill.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Cian O'Callaghan: Yes, but I do not see-----

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Cian O'Callaghan: Yes, and we are putting forward the case that it is the appropriate place to put it. I am confused by the explanation that there could be a conflict between amenity areas and conservation areas, so-----

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Cian O'Callaghan: There is then a concern that there could be a conflict between special areas of amenity, conservation areas and recreational areas. Will the Minister of State expand on that for me?

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Cian O'Callaghan: I am finding it difficult to understand the explanation, and I will explain why. First, this is about the obligation to prepare a strategy for conservation of natural and built heritage. Natural heritage is the obvious place where one would place our amendment as regards areas subject to special amenity area orders and the identification of such areas. If they are not included under that...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Cian O'Callaghan: It was the Howth special amenity area order management committee. It was very useful because the National Parks and Wildlife Service was involved as it has a particular interest in SACs and so forth, and this was complementary. There were no conflicts. Within that area, there were recreational uses as well because there can be special areas of amenity and recreational uses in those as...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Cian O'Callaghan: My concern is that we have had a lot of undertakings since we started this Bill - every time we raise an issue there are undertakings - but we are not actually getting concrete proposals. We are not being told our amendments are wrong, only that the Government wants to look at this more. My concern is that all this could be lost within the commitments on biodiversity and that we may have...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Cian O'Callaghan: I do not find the explanation given satisfactory. We have been told about these conflicts but, in fact, the experience is that you can of course have recreation functions in special areas of amenity and you can have special conservation areas. This is the reality now - it happens - so being told that it poses these potential conflicts and that therefore the amendment cannot be accepted at...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Cian O'Callaghan: I completely accept that.