Results 2,481-2,500 of 7,267 for speaker:Cian O'Callaghan

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

Cian O'Callaghan: Section 20C of the Planning and Development Act 2000 states: (8) The Government shall submit the draft of the revised or new National Planning Framework together with the Environmental Report and Appropriate Assessment Report for the approval of each House of the Oireachtas before it is published. (9) In preparing or revising the National Planning Framework, the Government shall have...

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

Cian O'Callaghan: I do not think I have had a chance to speak to amendment No. 526, and it is my amendment. I appreciate that the Chair wishes to finish this part of the debate, but it is my amendment.

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

Cian O'Callaghan: Subsection (3) refers to a class of infrastructure or other development. Is this urgent direction that the Minister can issue in these circumstances both to potentially prevent a certain type of development from taking place and also to ensure a certain type of development does take place? Could the Minister issue a direction to vary a development plan to build a motorway because that has...

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

Cian O'Callaghan: I thank the Minister of State for the clarification. I will give a scenario. There could be a local authority where the members doing the development plan decide not to facilitate the construction of a significant roadway in their area. It is unlikely that the majority of elected members would do that. They would only do that in an extreme circumstances. I will just use it as an example....

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

Cian O'Callaghan: There is also a last bit I want to tease out. Clearly if there is some sort of emergency event or disaster and if this provision covers it then there is a rationale for it. This section of the Bill refers to "an event or situation". This is very broad and there is nothing limiting that. It must have significant national or regional strategic implications but surely a Minister could take a...

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

Cian O'Callaghan: My concern is that a Minister may decide, for example, that traffic congestion is - in the Minister's view - urgent and that it is of strategic regional-----

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

Cian O'Callaghan: The issue is that this is not clearly, closely or tightly defined. It could be open to different interpretation. The absence of Oireachtas approval makes it much wider again. Oireachtas approval would be a form of safeguard on that. If, in the view of many, a Minister was being unreasonable on an issue, the Oireachtas oversight would give a chance for this to be aired. There is no...

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

Cian O'Callaghan: No, but I will come back in after the Minister of State.

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

Cian O'Callaghan: I am okay for the moment.

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

Cian O'Callaghan: This is an important part of the planning process and public participation. The fees and how they are structured, and changes made to them, can be a barrier to people's ability to participate. Having scrutiny by the Oireachtas based on recommendations from the Oireachtas joint committee is a very good way to go about this and is a very good way to hear from people. There are a couple of...

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

Cian O'Callaghan: If only every amendment could be as quick and successful.

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

Cian O'Callaghan: I move amendment No. 47: In page 40, to delete line 17. My amendment concerns rent pressure zones and short-term lets. Head 8 is about short-term lettings. When we discussed some issues related to this earlier in our meetings, the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell, told us that the measures aimed at regulating short-term lets would help address the problem of overconcentration of...

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

Cian O'Callaghan: Sure.

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

Cian O'Callaghan: I do not have the figure to hand myself. Does Deputy Ó Broin wish to comment? No. The last information I had, which may well not be up to date, so I would appreciate an up-to-date figure, if it were available, is that there are 77 local electoral areas that are not rent pressure zones.

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

Cian O'Callaghan: The figure may not be up to date. If the Minister of State were able to provide us with the up-to-date figure, that would be useful.

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

Cian O'Callaghan: An analysis was done of these local electoral areas that found that 62 had no chance of ever becoming a rent pressure zone. That is for technical reasons around the rent pressure zone legislation. It is not because there are not very high rent increases in these areas. It is the way the rent pressure zone regulations are written and what qualifies and does not qualify to become a rent...

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

Cian O'Callaghan: The Minister of State said my amendment is not necessary, so what is the purpose of section 8(4)(a)? What effect will that have on the regulation of short-term lettings?

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

Cian O'Callaghan: This section deals with short-term lettings. Section 8(2) states that the Minister may make regulations requiring such persons as are specified in the regulations to provide a planning authority with such information as may be so specified at such intervals as may be so specified with regard to short-term lettings in the functional area of the planning authority. Section 8(3) states that a...

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

Cian O'Callaghan: My amendment seeks to ensure that the section of the Bill which deals with short-term lettings will apply to short-term lettings outside rent pressure zones. If this is an objective that someone supports then my amendment is important and necessary. Perhaps the Government does not believe that short-term lettings outside rent pressure zones need to be regulated the same as short-term...