Results 3,221-3,240 of 14,941 for speaker:Eoin Ó Broin

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: I do not want to have a row with the Cathaoirleach because he has chaired these sessions exceptionally well.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: The article yesterday was not written by a journalist. The Irish Planning Institute, IPI, decided to write an opinion piece specifically focused on the work of this committee because it has significant concerns. It is materially relevant to our deliberations, including on this section, and it is right and proper its views would be read into the record.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: No.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: It was officially written on behalf on the institute and is not the personal opinions of an individual.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: The Minister's response to the official public position of the IPI is unfortunate. When representatives of the IPI presented to the joint committee during pre-legislative scrutiny, they were extremely critical of the consultation process that the Minister outlined. In fact, one of the comments they made was that there was an enormous difference between what was discussed at the planning...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: For example, there was a recent section 5 declaration request to my local authority from a commercial property owner in an industrial estate to determine if a change of use was exempted development. It is interesting because if the owner of the development is going to proceed with the change of use it is obviously going to be financially very significant for them with regard to what they do...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: I have not heard anybody, in any of my engagements on this issue, saying that the status quo should remain. I am not saying those people do not exist but I have not come across them, and it is certainly not the argument of those of us on this side of the Chamber. I am not so sure what the Minister means by his reference to some experts forgetting, in his comments around efficiency and...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: Was that specifically on the concerns raised by ourselves and the Irish Planning Institute and others?

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: In those conversations, was there any consideration or discussion around the Aarhus Convention and the participation rights of third parties? Everything the Minister has said to date, which is completely reasonable, has been around the concern of the Attorney General on first party rights. Surely if we raised third party rights, as did others, eight months ago, and the Minister has had...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: No, it is amendments Nos. 99 to 103. They are relevant to section 11, which is a supplemental provision for section 10.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: Yes.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: Before I speak to the amendments, I am keen to hear the Minister's explanation for section 11. Like Deputy O'Callaghan, I was taken aback when I read it. Intuitively, it jarred with me that such a prohibition would be in place. Obviously, there are some caveats if information is misleading or withheld, but there could be circumstances in which information is just not brought to light or is...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: I apologise as I did not understand any of that. It could be my fault. Regarding the restrictions and prohibitions included in section 11, I am looking for a plain-English explanation for what is being done. I do not understand.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: Why? What is the rationale for that?

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: My not understanding this could just be because I am not as familiar with this process. Is it that the current practice of the courts, whereby a section 5 declaration is treated as conclusive evidence, is a problem whose solution is to not allow it to be admissible at all? Is there not a better way of dealing with that, namely, to find a mechanism by which the declaration is not deemed...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: However, section 11(2) states, "Subject to subsection (1), a relevant declaration shall not be admissible in evidence in any proceedings relating to the act, operation or change in use in respect of which the relevant declaration was made." In that case, it is not admissible.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: So it is admissible in the case of a first party but not a third party.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: Does that relate to section 5 declarations issued up to the enactment of this Bill, or does it mean that any declaration under what will be section 10 after the enactment of this Bill could be submitted as evidence by the first party but not by the third?

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: The opposite. My question is twofold. First, will the prohibition in subsection 11(2) apply to a court case after the enactment of this Bill, but with respect to a section 5 declaration issued under the legislation as it stands? Second, will it also apply to what will be a section 10 declaration once this Bill is enacted, whereby a third party will not be able to submit it as evidence...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: Yes.