Results 4,661-4,680 of 9,814 for speaker:Steven Matthews

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Planning and Development Bill 2022: Discussion (Resumed) (21 Feb 2023)

Steven Matthews: I will move on to Mr. Anglim.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Planning and Development Bill 2022: Discussion (Resumed) (21 Feb 2023)

Steven Matthews: I ask Mr. Killian to be brief because I have to keep every group to five minutes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Planning and Development Bill 2022: Discussion (Resumed) (21 Feb 2023)

Steven Matthews: I will give Mr. Killian the opportunity to come in at any point in the meeting in response to questions and points that are raised but I have to be fair and just give five minutes for opening statements to each group.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Planning and Development Bill 2022: Discussion (Resumed) (21 Feb 2023)

Steven Matthews: Thank you. I now invite Mr. Minton to make an opening statement on behalf of the regional assemblies.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Planning and Development Bill 2022: Discussion (Resumed) (21 Feb 2023)

Steven Matthews: I thank Mr. Minton. To clarify, the three regional assemblies are represented today. I mentioned the Northern and Western Regional Assembly in my opening address but members of all three assemblies are here, which is great.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Planning and Development Bill 2022: Discussion (Resumed) (21 Feb 2023)

Steven Matthews: What we are looking at during pre-legislative scrutiny of this draft Bill in no way reflects the length of time that has gone into the Bill. A 15- to 18-month review with the Attorney General's office went on. There was engagement with many stakeholders.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Planning and Development Bill 2022: Discussion (Resumed) (21 Feb 2023)

Steven Matthews: Councillor Killian was a member of that advisory committee.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Planning and Development Bill 2022: Discussion (Resumed) (21 Feb 2023)

Steven Matthews: We will make recommendations before the next draft of this Bill is published. As we have said clearly from the beginning, this is open to change. It is no way the final document. Even so, Councillor Killian is correct. It is a daunting task to read 738 pages and compare it with the consolidated Act, and I think we have all struggled with that part of it.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Planning and Development Bill 2022: Discussion (Resumed) (21 Feb 2023)

Steven Matthews: I am in two minds on the ten-year plan. In a way, it is good to have a long look at the county development plan, which is the overarching plan for the county, and then to fill in the details with priority area plans, urban area plans and joint area plans, or local area plans as they were previously known. I remember being completely overwhelmed by a development plan process. It is really...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Planning and Development Bill 2022: Discussion (Resumed) (21 Feb 2023)

Steven Matthews: I get the points being made and take them sincerely. I have a certain amount of experience of development plans. I was outraged when certain things were voted through. I was then depending on the OPR to come in with a sword and state that certain parts of the plan were not on. There are two sides to it. The regional assemblies currently carry out a two-year monitoring in respect of the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Planning and Development Bill 2022: Discussion (Resumed) (21 Feb 2023)

Steven Matthews: I was on the Eastern and Midland Regional Assembly for a while in 2020 before I was elected to the Dáil. We had just passed the regional, spatial and economic strategy, RSES, for the eastern and midland region. We are now into the third year of that strategy. There is a monitoring report on the three RSESs at the moment. Do they go to the Minister separately to be put together?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Planning and Development Bill 2022: Discussion (Resumed) (21 Feb 2023)

Steven Matthews: Is it too early at this stage in the review of the three plans that have been done to assess whether the targets of the NPF are being met in respect of balanced regional development?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Planning and Development Bill 2022: Discussion (Resumed) (21 Feb 2023)

Steven Matthews: That would be helpful. On a point raised by Senator Cummins, we received a document in recent days which compares the old section with the new section. I do not even have a copy of it with me. We would be happy to send that to our guests if they want to circulate it to their members. We are all used to sections we are familiar with and that are no longer there or have now moved.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Planning and Development Bill 2022: Discussion (Resumed) (21 Feb 2023)

Steven Matthews: I will correct the record as well. It is Senator Boyhan, not Councillor Boyhan.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Planning and Development Bill 2022: Discussion (Resumed) (21 Feb 2023)

Steven Matthews: Sure.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Planning and Development Bill 2022: Discussion (Resumed) (21 Feb 2023)

Steven Matthews: I thank Senator Fitzpatrick. I will move on now to Senator Boyhan for the second Independent slot.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Planning and Development Bill 2022: Discussion (Resumed) (21 Feb 2023)

Steven Matthews: I thank Senator Boyhan. I will take the Green Party slot. Then we are into the third round. Senator Cummins has indicated. I presume Deputy Ó Broin wishes to come back in to lead the mobilisation. I will stick with the issue of one-off rural housing for the moment and read what the panel has probably all read, the planning regulator's report statement that, "in 2021, one-off...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Planning and Development Bill 2022: Discussion (Resumed) (21 Feb 2023)

Steven Matthews: Two years for a six-year plan is hard going as well. Would Ms Henchy imagine three years for a ten-year plan is somewhere in and around right?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Planning and Development Bill 2022: Discussion (Resumed) (21 Feb 2023)

Steven Matthews: Please do. If we are to go to a ten-year plan, two years is not enough to prepare that fully. I call Mr. Kelly.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Planning and Development Bill 2022: Discussion (Resumed) (21 Feb 2023)

Steven Matthews: I thank Mr. Kelly. I will take that into account. As well as that, it states that within one or two years you start preparing urban area plans, priority plans and joint plans as well. It comes down to resources. Senator Cummins raised the point about looking for a section 57 declaration and Mr. Kehoe stated that if it is not complex you would get it done within a couple of weeks and if...