Results 3,781-3,800 of 14,941 for speaker:Eoin Ó Broin

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (13 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: Many of the statutory instruments could be indefinite in nature, and their transitional nature could be such that they will just continue until such time as somebody decides to cease them. They are less likely to be time bound in the way that some of the other transitional mechanisms are. It is just a matter for the Government.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (13 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: That applies in a general way to all statutory instruments, other than the large body of regulations the Minister of State's team are working on, which will have to start moving their way through the system on enactment.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (13 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: I thank the Minister of State.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (13 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: Yes, it is a supplementary point. The Bill as drafted outlines a clear procedure for either rescinding or replacing a section 28 mandatory ministerial guideline. The challenge with amendment No. 188 is that any guidelines under section 52 of the 2000 Act - I presume there is a list of the guidelines issued thereunder - will continue in force until the “first issuing of a National...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (13 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: By way of being helpful, it seems to me that the amendment needs some clarification that the national planning policy statement should be a relevant national policy statement as per section 24 of the Bill. A little bit of drafting would make it clear.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (13 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: We will have a row about them tomorrow. Do not worry. We will get into that in the other amendments.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (13 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: I just need 30 seconds, with the Chair's indulgence.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (13 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: I have a complementary point. I know these extensions are not normal or usual. The merger of Waterford city and county councils is one example. I am interested to hear how frequent or infrequent such extensions have been. I also want to know the role of elected members. Is it that there is a request from the chief executive or the elected members to extend? Is it a unilateral...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (13 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: This is a minor point, and I am saying this because we will come back to it. The phrase "shall have regard to" is one of the weakest formulations used in the legislation. There is a real dichotomy throughout the Bill, which is that where the Government really wants something to happen, it is stated that it must comply with or must substantially or materially comply with something. When it...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (13 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: Sure.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (13 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: That is quite a different proposition from what has happened in recent times in the unusual extension of development plans for very good reasons such as the merging of two local authorities. South Dublin County Council was in the first tranche of councils to recently agree a development plan. That was in the last 12 to 18 months. Given that we are moving to ten-year plans and that the...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (13 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: Are we saying that, in the transition from the existing development plans to the ten-year plans under this Bill, the duration of quite a lot of development plans could be extended?

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (13 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: Will the Minister of State explain his point?

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (13 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: We are not talking about the larger local authorities that have agreed their new development plans but about the small number that have yet to do so.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (13 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: Instead of completing the development plan review they have under way and into which they put blood, sweat and tears, their existing plans would be extended and their new plans would form the first generation of the ten-year plans. Is that correct?

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (13 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: Let us take Donegal and Sligo, for example. If their plans are coming to an end and they have reviews under way but those reviews are not going to be completed before the enactment of the relevant sections of the new Bill, those plans will be extended. I have two questions.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (13 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: I have not got to the questions yet. What is the process by which such an extension would take place? Do local authority members or the manager request an extension? That is the first question.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (13 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: It is a two-part question. First, what is the process? The amendment does not say. Second, there are legal and EU environmental obligations as regards strategic environmental assessments and the Aarhus Convention. Deputy Cian O'Callaghan mentioned public participation. If these plans are to be extended, not only is it not clear from the amendment what the process is, who requests that...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (13 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: Does that include requirements under the relative directives on public participation and Aarhus compliance?

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (13 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: On the first part of my question, there is no mention of the local authority, elected members or the manager or chief executive. Is this something a Minister could impose unilaterally on those local authorities? Is that the intention? Clearly, local authorities will be talking about it. Is there to be dialogue?