Results 4,061-4,080 of 15,694 for speaker:Eoin Ó Broin

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: I suggest there could be a very significant conflict between those two sets of what are currently section 28 guidelines. I know the Minister of State said the decision on section 28 guidelines for building heights has been made but, again, it is a further cause for concern that if both sets of guidelines had the force or statutory imprimatur of these provisions, very significant conflict...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: I have a secondary observation. Deputy O'Callaghan's question was not answered so I will ask it in a very simple form. Are the national planning statements, particularly the national policies and measures mentioned in section 23(1)(a), statutory or non-statutory? That will be a straight answer.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: Can I get an answer to that first? It is a very specific question.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: Are they statutory or non-statutory? It is a very important question for legal clarity.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: That is not the question and I do not think the Minister of State gave a correct answer. I will be very specific. The national planning framework is a statutory plan. It is very clear it is a statutory plan. My understanding of the national planning statements, particularly as outlined in section 23(1)(a), is that they are statutory policies. I am looking for a "Yes" or a "No". They are...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: That is not the question. Are they statutory or non-statutory? It is a really basic question.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: They are statutory. That is-----

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: They are statutory.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: Apologies.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: They are statutory, however. The Minister of State has confirmed that.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: What forces the local authorities to have plans consistent with those statements is that those statements are statutory in nature. Is that correct?

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: I have some similar amendments, although they appear to be in another grouping, so I will make a brief comment in support of Deputy O'Callaghan's amendment. As the Minister of State will be aware, we have a procedure whereby any changes to exempted development regulations come to this committee by way of a motion of the Oireachtas. There is sometimes a good discussion at the committee with...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: Of course there is nothing to prevent a Minister from doing X or Y. The purpose of legislation is to try to set out what the Minister should do in all circumstances. The difficulty relates to how some Ministers may act. If we look at the national planning framework, for example, the then Minister, Deputy Coveney, and his successor, Eoghan Murphy, were responsible in this regard when the...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: I will speak to amendments Nos. 525 and 526 together because they are related.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: I will again quote from the Mahon tribunal recommendations on planning, particularly as they are directly relevant to this provision in section 65. The recommendations state: ... the Tribunal is concerned that recent changes in the planning system have resulted in an over-centralisation of power in the hands of the Minister for the Environment [now the Minister for housing] which is not...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: The problem is that the Government's view is completely at variance with the Mahon tribunal’s recommendations, including with respect to the Planning Regulator. I remind the Minister of State of what Mahon said with regard to this specific issue and to who should have responsibility for what, namely, the Minister or the regulator. The tribunal recommended that the Minister’s...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: I hear the Minister of State very clearly. That is easily understood, but it does not answer the question. Why did the Government not implement the Mahon tribunal recommendation in this regard? The policy here is the very opposite of what Mahon recommended.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: I hear you.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: When the legislation relating to the Planning Regulator was going through the House, I had a conversation with someone who is centrally involved in the process. I asked the same question that I have asked the Minister of State twice - he has not answer - as to why the Government did not adhere to the Mahon tribunal’s recommendations. That individual to whom I refer asked “What...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Feb 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: I do not dispute some of what the Minister of State said at the end. The Office of the Planning Regulator, broadly speaking, has played a very positive role in terms of its interaction with the local authorities and in respect of county development plans. I welcome this. I also welcome the fact that in almost all cases bar one, the directions recommended by the regulator have been enforced...