Results 3,001-3,020 of 14,941 for speaker:Eoin Ó Broin

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (29 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: I think I have the floor.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (29 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: I will start again. It is my opinion that the Minister does not seem to understand the proposition as set out by my colleagues. I would like to offer the Minister the opportunity to convince me that he does understand the proposition, as well as set out a more credible case as to why he opposes it. Words matter and they matter more in legislation than anything else. What the amendment is...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (29 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: To correct the record, Sinn Féin enthusiastically supported the Government's legislation underpinning the climate action plan.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (29 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: We absolutely support the budgets. In fact, to the credit of this committee, in respect of the Department and the area of embodied carbon and emissions arising from the built environment, we have done strong cross-party work. We produced two reports which we have sent to the Minister. It is disappointing that many of the recommendations relevant to this Bill are not in it but we will deal...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (29 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: I will just finish this one sentence. We had considerable discussion at an early stage about the need, for example, for a review of fire safety regulations in terms of BCAR to ensure that, for example, we can use low-carbon building materials over 10 m to ensure sustainable development. Because of all that, this amendment is absolutely crucial. It is not a matter of semantics; it is a...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (29 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: On that, I assume UDZs and SDZs are covered under Part IX of the Act.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (29 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: I will withdrawing the amendment. I do not know why it is there.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (29 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: Yes, and I just want to say that I welcome this new spirit of partnership from the Minister of State. I hope that it is not a tactic to avoid detailed consideration of the various sections, and that it is a genuine commitment to come back on Report Stage. Of course I will take the Minister of State at face value on that. However, we will be keeping a record and if it is not, we will remind...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (29 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: That is clear. This is just for clarity. I am looking at, for example, Westmeath, for which 2027 is the end date of the current plan. That means, potentially, in Athlone - I know it is only one of the three local authorities - it could be as late as 2033 or 2034 before it has a co-ordinated plan.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (29 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: Nor should it.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (29 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: I am not going to waste time on this because we have had these debates over and over. The section relates to the obligation to prepare housing development strategies where a planning authority's functional areas comprise solely a city. Section 45(3)(d) refers to the "identification of existing capacity, and planned investment in capacity, in transport (including, in particular, transport...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (29 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: The amendment will insert “Irish language facilities” in the list of infrastructure and facilities that are mentioned in section 45(3)(d) with respect to the obligation to prepare housing development strategies. It mentions community facilities, and we are proposing the inclusion of Irish language facilities. I apologise for the confusion but there was a correction to the...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (29 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: I do not agree but I am not going to repeat the debate we have had.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (29 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: I have an identical amendment, which is amendment No. 139. The only difference is one is an (f) and one is a (g) but the text of the amendments is the same. To add to Deputy O'Callaghan's point, a number of organisations which either engage directly in the pre-legislative scrutiny, or which have engaged with committee members since then by way of correspondence, have raised the need to...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (29 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: The Minister of State is racking up a large number of amendments for Report Stage. It is good to have the collaborative spirit back after the brief interregnum of the past two hours. I have several questions. Given the enormous priority the Government has given to the climate Act, the carbon budgets and the sectoral targets, and given that during the process of producing the Bill much of...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (29 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: Again, I will not hold my breath in the context of seeing what comes out the other side. I would still like an explanation as to why it is not in the Bill in the first place. Quite a number of amendments aimed at trying to fix this particular problem were tabled by me, Deputies Duffy, Matthews and O'Callaghan and others. I am intrigued as to why it is not in there in some shape or form already.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (29 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: Amendment No. 366 is also in my name. The Minister of State's response to the amendments is deeply disappointing and frustrating. It speaks to an approach to this issue that does not seem to understand the significance of ensuring that there is, in the planning legislation and, in particular, with respect to the housing strategies in the development plan, an absolute requirement for the...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (29 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: When we did the report, as the Minister of State referenced, we had officials from the Department in. They told us they were waiting for the European Union to complete its work in this area, which is due to be completed in 2027, and that only after this were they going to act. The Minister of State has broadly repeated that timeline here. The difficulty is that we have legally binding...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (29 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: I will move on the conversation to incorporate amendments Nos. 612 and 613 but they relate to the same issue. In my opinion and I say this respectfully, the Minister of State is plain wrong that it is not a planning matter. My two amendments Nos. 612 and 613 seek to explain in practical terms that this is a planning matter. Amendment No. 612 relates to section 84, which deals with...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (29 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: This comes back to the various areas to be considered in the national planning framework. Amendment No. 142 seeks to insert the words "air quality management". Amendment No. 143 seeks to insert the wording "compliance with the State’s European Union obligations for waste management, water quality, air quality, nature conservation and restoration, and reduction of green house gas...