Results 3,061-3,080 of 14,941 for speaker:Eoin Ó Broin

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (28 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: Before I speak to amendments Nos. 120 and 160, will the Minister of State repeat the list of the amendments he intends to withdraw?

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (28 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: Bear with me. Just so I can-----

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (28 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: When I read the definition, and I appreciate it is from the CSO, it seemed pretty arbitrary in terms of a BUA. It just seemed to involve gathering together a number of smaller areas. Is the Minister of State in a position to clarify why the CSO uses that definition? I appreciate that the Department wants to use the same definition, given that the census is the data that will inform NPFs...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (28 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: Deputy O'Callaghan's final question is important namely, what is the advantage or purpose of having this definition? What do we get from it?

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (28 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: It is not the same as towns, villages or key towns. Clearly, there is a reason why there is a separate designation of a BUA rather than a town. I am not objecting to it. It is more to understand what is proposed because it is new.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (28 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: I will let the Minister of State finish his response and then I will come in with my related question.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (28 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: Is this then for the purposes of not just calculating the underlying targets of the NPF - because they are done through housing needs demand assessment - but also for situations where planning authorities can, at a granular level, make decisions in respect of whether areas are built up? I am trying to work out the functionality of this definition.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (28 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: Okay. That clarifies it for me. Turning to amendment No. 160, to be clear, I have an amendment to the same sentence. My original concern with the review of the national planning framework and the two-year period the Government is amending is that it could be up to two years after a census has been conducted before the new census data could be worked into an NPF. What is the import of...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (28 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: When the amendment says "publication", to what is that referring? As the Minister of State knows, when a census is carried out, there is first the preliminary report, which is followed by the various other reports. Which publication is it referring to?

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (28 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: When the Minister of State refers to the "second occurrence", will he put that in plain English, please? Is that the second census?

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (28 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: For clarity’s sake, let us use the example of the 2016 census. The Government agreed the current NPF in 2018. A big debate we had in 2019, 2020 and 2021 related to whether the underlying population growth projection data and headroom growth data from the 2016 census were out of date by the time the 2018 national planning framework was being agreed. Is the Minister of State saying in...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (28 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: There is no rush. This is an important part of the section.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (28 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: It will really be 12 years because it will be the ten years of the two census cycles plus the two years it is going to take to publish the final results. That is why it is currently 2024, given there is an assumption it will take two years. What the Minister of State is really saying with his amendments, therefore, is that there will be a review every 12 years. Is that not correct?

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (28 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: The Minister of State is saying it will be every ten years, but he is also saying it will relate to the publication of the final report. We will get the final report of the 2022 census this year, so it invariably takes two years between the date of the census and the publication of the final report. That really means it will be ten years plus however long it takes the final report to be...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (28 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: I understand that-----

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (28 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: I will come to the argument in a moment as to why I think this is the wrong way of doing it, but before I criticise it I want to make sure I understand it, because I am not yet clear. In reality, the import of the Government amendment to the section is that it will be every 12 years, if it takes two years to produce the final report of the second census. Is that not correct?

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (28 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: I appreciate that but there is a logic to where I am going with this. The problem is that if that is the upper limit, that is the worst case scenario. There is a reason I am pursuing this line of argument.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (28 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: No. My understanding is the review will be carried out after every second census, that is, every ten years, but it will not be immediately after the conducting of the census. The Government amendment refers to the publication of the final results of the second occurrence of the census. That means there will be the ten years for the two census cycles and the CSO will then produce the data,...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (28 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: Exactly. That is my point. The Minister of State is saying that if it takes the CSO two years to produce its final report, that will add two years to the ten, whereas if it gets it done within six months, that will add six months. Is that not correct?

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (28 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: Why are we making it such a long period? I fully understand it is a strategic plan and we cannot chop and change every two years. Nevertheless, if we look at what happened demographically between 2016 and 2022, there were significant levels of increased economic growth, which have led to return migration of Irish folks beyond what was predicted in 2016. We have an increase in inward...