Results 4,281-4,300 of 8,196 for speaker:Alice-Mary Higgins

Seanad: Planning and Development (Amendment) (No. 3) Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (28 Jun 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I strongly agree with the importance of local authorities and their members and the fact that they should have more power and more reserved functions. I also very much agree that they should be supported to get independent legal and planning advice. In that sense, I am very happy to support amendment No. 6, which clarifies that it is the members of the local authority making a key decision....

Seanad: Planning and Development (Amendment) (No. 3) Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (28 Jun 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: It is a delay, and the delay may well be justified in order to produce a good plan.However, it is a delay. To be clear, there is a difference in the date on which a new plan will start. It is an extension at a point at which we face multiple crises. We face the Covid-19 crisis, but we also face other crises, such as climate, for example. In that context, this has been brought through as...

Seanad: Planning and Development (Amendment) (No. 3) Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (28 Jun 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Some parts of this have been made somewhat redundant, by the previous amendments that were passed. The concern is that this three-quarter threshold, which is an appropriately high threshold for these decisions, might not be applied to all of the extensions that might be made consequentially in this Act. Now that the threshold has been lowered, the bar has dipped backwards. This was a...

Seanad: Planning and Development (Amendment) (No. 3) Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (28 Jun 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: One part of the amendment has been partially addressed by amendment No. 6, which I supported. It clarifies that it is the members of a planning authority. That was one part. The concern about the two points of initiation is to be clear where the decision would sit. There is still a concern. The Minister of State mentioned some parts, like section 11D(10), not being a concern. However,...

Seanad: Planning and Development (Amendment) (No. 3) Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (28 Jun 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I can speak to this amendment. I have a similar amendment which I do not think was grouped. Can I check that my amendment was not grouped?

Seanad: Planning and Development (Amendment) (No. 3) Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (28 Jun 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I will come to a similar amendment, amendment No. 17, shortly.Because of the safeguard provisions in section 11D, that is, the effect of the extension on the development plan, the environment, European sites and the need for a strategic environmental assessment or an appropriate assessment, the concern is that screening as to whether these assessments are needed and any related period of...

Seanad: Planning and Development (Amendment) (No. 3) Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (28 Jun 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: The periods here are just too long. We have suggested a range of different dates in the amendments. Senator Warfield's amendment suggests 1 January 2022 and I have given a slightly lengthier period and suggested 1 October 2022, which sees us through another winter, spring, summer and autumn. I have also suggested, in a few different places, the date of 1 January 2023. The date of 1...

Seanad: Planning and Development (Amendment) (No. 3) Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (28 Jun 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Consultation of the best quality is consultation in which you get heard and that has an impact. I understand people are making submissions. In fact, they have been extremely active in doing so. There is urgency. It is not simply about the environment. We will come to that later. Although there are the matters of the strategic environmental assessment and other environmental issues,...

Seanad: Planning and Development (Amendment) (No. 3) Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (28 Jun 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 10: In page 5, line 28, to delete "1 January 2024" and substitute "1 October 2022".

Seanad: Planning and Development (Amendment) (No. 3) Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (28 Jun 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 11: In page 5, line 28, to delete "1 January 2024" and substitute "1 January 2023".

Seanad: Planning and Development (Amendment) (No. 3) Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (28 Jun 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Can I confirm that we are discussing amendments Nos. 12 to 15, inclusive?

Seanad: Planning and Development (Amendment) (No. 3) Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (28 Jun 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: That includes a number of Government amendments. These amendments seek to ensure that the two aspects of the screening determination, one in respect of the screening as to whether there is a need for a strategic environmental assessment or appropriate assessment, as well as the actual assessments. The concern is that in screening, only the extension period will be looked at, rather than,...

Seanad: Planning and Development (Amendment) (No. 3) Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (28 Jun 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I have one small question and I will then raise a technical matter. On amendment No. 12 specifically, I accept the wording is probably stronger than amendment No. 14. Amendment No. 12 states: "such determination is published and made available as part of the consultation notified on the proposed extension". The Minister of State mentioned publication. Can he again clarify that when a...

Seanad: Planning and Development (Amendment) (No. 3) Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (28 Jun 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: That is fine.

Seanad: Planning and Development (Amendment) (No. 3) Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (28 Jun 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 14: In page 6, line 4, to delete “or” where it secondly occurs and substitute “and”.

Seanad: Planning and Development (Amendment) (No. 3) Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (28 Jun 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: This amendment is effectively around trying to copper-fasten the climate aspects. We have interlocking sets of environmental protections in our planning piece, some of which are less robust than previously because they involve an intersection between the Departments responsible for planning and heritage, a check and balance that is now gone. We are looking at that set of environmental...

Seanad: Planning and Development (Amendment) (No. 3) Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (28 Jun 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: We may have already touched on this point when we discussed housing. I am concerned about amendment No. 40 on the variations. The answer seemed to be that if issues were identified under the SEA, there would be no extension. I understand there may be circumstances where it is a very specific issue and I do not want to create a dynamic in which one very specific issue will interfere with...

Seanad: Planning and Development (Amendment) (No. 3) Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (28 Jun 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 17: In page 6, between lines 8 and 9, to insert the following: “(2A) Where an extension of a development plan amounts cumulatively to a period of more than six months a strategic environmental assessment shall be considered to be required.”. In recognition of amendments Nos. 13 and 15, which address at least half of my concern in amendment No. 17, I...

Seanad: Planning and Development (Amendment) (No. 3) Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (28 Jun 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: These amendments seek to mirror the period of time that would be available for public consultation. Quite a strong argument was made earlier that a vote on the extension would mirror similar votes on other development plans or variants of development plans. I discussed with others the question of a three quarters majority vote or a simple majority vote during the interval in voting. I...

Seanad: Planning and Development (Amendment) (No. 3) Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (28 Jun 2021)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move amendment No. 21: In page 7, between lines 3 and 4, to insert the following: “(ia) include an assessment of the potential impact of an extension on the local authorities achievement of obligations as a relevant body under section 15 of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015,”.