Results 3,641-3,660 of 14,941 for speaker:Eoin Ó Broin

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

Eoin Ó Broin: I would like to speak to amendment No. 201 in this group. Deputy Matthews is right that there is probably nobody, certainly in this room, let alone in the Oireachtas, who knows more about the national biodiversity action plan than the Minister of State. While he has not said "No" to the 36 amendments trying to promote and strength the biodiversity elements of this Bill, he has said a kind...

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

Eoin Ó Broin: I am sorry but the Minister of State does not believe that. Is he seriously telling me that section 24(1)(g) satisfactorily includes biodiversity? Come on.

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

Eoin Ó Broin: That is why I am asking. It is a very big stretch.

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

Eoin Ó Broin: I will make the wider point I was going to make. It is not that I was looking to put words in the Minister of State's mouth but there is such a distance between the text of section 24(1)(g) and Deputy Duffy's amendment and my own that it is factually inaccurate to suggest that it could somehow be accommodated.

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

Eoin Ó Broin: That is slightly different from how the Minister of State phrased it earlier but I take his point. Here is my point. The Minister of State is one of the most vocal advocates for Government action to address the biodiversity crisis. It is one of the great contributions he has made to the Oireachtas since being elected. It is very rare that I compliment a Government Minister of State but it...

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

Eoin Ó Broin: The Minister of State can speak for himself. I suspect I am not wrong. If the Minister of State says I am wrong, I will happily accept his word. He is right that our amendments are piecemeal. This is the first opportunity we have had to table them but at least we have gone and tabled them. At least we are attempting to strengthen the way in which this Bill and the planning system impacts...

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

Eoin Ó Broin: I will make one quick supplementary point. I welcome the Minister of State putting that on the record.

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

Eoin Ó Broin: Let us be very clear. The only way planners are going to be able to comply with that duty under the biodiversity action plan is if we set out very clearly how they are to do so. Some of that will be in legislation, guidelines and so on. The same point as was made in the conversation we had yesterday on section 52 guidelines and the national planning framework will have to apply. It is all...

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

Eoin Ó Broin: Not necessarily.

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

Eoin Ó Broin: It is 5 p.m. and the officials have to eat before the next session.

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

Eoin Ó Broin: In fairness to the staff and officials - and I have no difficulty staying here all night - if we go another ten minutes we still have to break for an hour. Folks here have to eat. If people are happy with that then I have no issue with it.

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

Eoin Ó Broin: Amendment No. 410 relates to section 48 on page 107 of the Bill. This is the obligation to prepare strategies for conservation of natural and built heritage. In the amendment, from (1)(a) through to (l), there is a variety of different areas that could be considered for the strategy. I want to include an additional one, under (k), which would be areas subject to special amenity area...

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

Eoin Ó Broin: Is there any initial response that the Minister of State, Deputy Collins, or his officials can give us in terms of the proposition with respect to this specific amendment? I realise the Minister of State has just come in. We had quite a lengthy discussion around other areas but this is a very specific proposal which we have not discussed with the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan.

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

Eoin Ó Broin: No rush. We are here all night, literally.

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

Eoin Ó Broin: The function of this section of the Act is to place an obligation on planning authorities to prepare strategies for conservation. It gives a list of the various areas that should be considered in those strategies. I want to include areas subject to special amenity area orders but also to go beyond those that are currently designated to include identification of areas where such orders would...

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

Eoin Ó Broin: I wish to make one point. I do not envy the Minister of State, Deputy Collins, at all because he has been dropped into an area that is not his ministerial brief. We are going to have other Ministers come in who are not from our Department, and this is absolutely not a criticism - I want to stress that. However, we need to be able to engage with the substance of the amendments, no matter...

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

Eoin Ó Broin: It would not be a satisfactory way to proceed.

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

Eoin Ó Broin: It would not be a satisfactory way to proceed, if it was to happen repeatedly.

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

Eoin Ó Broin: I will take it as said.