Results 10,401-10,420 of 15,018 for speaker:Eoin Ó Broin

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Strategic Housing Developments: Discussion (10 Nov 2020)

Eoin Ó Broin: I am sure Mr. Sheridan had sleepless nights for quite some time after this legislation was originally passed, given its torturous passage through the House. I will make a couple of introductory remarks and then I will pose some very direct questions both to the Department and to the board. This was a terrible piece of legislation. I mean that with no disrespect to the enormous amount of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Strategic Housing Developments: Discussion (10 Nov 2020)

Eoin Ó Broin: The first four are for Mr. Sheridan and the last three are for An Bord Pleanála.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Strategic Housing Developments: Discussion (10 Nov 2020)

Eoin Ó Broin: We will get them in the second round. Mr. Sheridan should not worry.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Strategic Housing Developments: Discussion (10 Nov 2020)

Eoin Ó Broin: Just in terms of the timeline, is it December 2021 or February 2022? That is quite an important question.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Strategic Housing Developments: Discussion (10 Nov 2020)

Eoin Ó Broin: Could we take more questions, very briefly, and allow the members to come in, in the five minutes we have if we promise to be very brief?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Strategic Housing Developments: Discussion (10 Nov 2020)

Eoin Ó Broin: If our questions are brief, the board may be able to reply to all three of us.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Strategic Housing Developments: Discussion (10 Nov 2020)

Eoin Ó Broin: I will be brief. I am a strong advocate of compact growth and increased density. I have never objected to a residential housing development anywhere. I have made submissions to try to improve them, but I make a point of not objecting. I had much sympathy with comments Ms Kenny made in a personal capacity last year which got her into a lot of trouble. However, we must be honest with...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Water Environment (Abstractions) Bill 2020: Discussion (Resumed) (5 Nov 2020)

Eoin Ó Broin: I thank the witnesses for the presentation. I will address questions to the EPA and SWAN but if we do not get to the answers in this round, I might get them in a further round later. From our session with departmental officials last week, one of the key ideas we are trying to grasp is why the heads have settled on the 25 cu. m and 2,000 cu. m thresholds. My first question to the EPA is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Water Environment (Abstractions) Bill 2020: Discussion (Resumed) (5 Nov 2020)

Eoin Ó Broin: It was shared. If anyone could shed light on that technical issue-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Water Environment (Abstractions) Bill 2020: Discussion (Resumed) (5 Nov 2020)

Eoin Ó Broin: A lot of my earlier questions were answered in the subsequent round. I have two questions for SWAN and then I will follow up with the EPA on a few of them. The European Commission published an opinion of non-compliant with the water framework last week. Maybe somebody from SWAN can talk us through their view of what that means and its significance to the discussion we are having here....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Water Environment (Abstractions) Bill 2020: Discussion (Resumed) (5 Nov 2020)

Eoin Ó Broin: Can I ask the EPA to also come back on that?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Water Environment (Abstractions) Bill 2020: Discussion (Resumed) (5 Nov 2020)

Eoin Ó Broin: On the requirement to advertise, is it the EPA's understanding that this will allow third parties to make submissions to the EPA, which it will then have to take into account in making its decision for existing abstractors?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Water Environment (Abstractions) Bill 2020: Discussion (Resumed) (5 Nov 2020)

Eoin Ó Broin: Does Dr. Cotter have any concern that the head does not make that explicit?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Water Environment (Abstractions) Bill 2020: Discussion (Resumed) (5 Nov 2020)

Eoin Ó Broin: No, that was my word, but I think it is a reasonable interpretation.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Water Environment (Abstractions) Bill 2020: Discussion (Resumed) (5 Nov 2020)

Eoin Ó Broin: On the question of resources not being an issue, on a number of occasions the EPA talked of the balance between that risk and the burden of administration and costs. If that burden of administration and costs was not what it currently is, would the EPA still be making the recommendations? When we ask the Department to tell us why it was going for 25 cu. m, 250 cu. m and 2,000 cu. m, in...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Water Environment (Abstractions) Bill 2020: Discussion (Resumed) (5 Nov 2020)

Eoin Ó Broin: Should the Bill give the power to refuse licences for existing abstractors under certain circumstances? With respect to enforcement, have recommendations been made to the Department concerning what that regime should be? In terms of indefinite licences, is there any other EPA licence type that is indefinite? Given that Ms Gurrie said that the registration process is very simple, why would...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Water Environment (Abstractions) Bill 2020: Discussion (Resumed) (5 Nov 2020)

Eoin Ó Broin: Is there a provision in the Bill to refuse a licence for an existing abstractor, if there are grounds to do so?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Water Environment (Abstractions) Bill 2020: Discussion (Resumed) (5 Nov 2020)

Eoin Ó Broin: I apologise for cutting across Ms O'Connor. My question is, does the EPA think that there should be provisions in the Bill to provide for a refusal? I know what the heads say, but it seems odd that there is no provision. If the EPA's view is, having done an assessment, that there is a problem, surely it would like to have that power to be able to refuse, I presume in very limited circumstances.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Water Environment (Abstractions) Bill 2020: Discussion (Resumed) (5 Nov 2020)

Eoin Ó Broin: I just want to press this because it is important.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Water Environment (Abstractions) Bill 2020: Discussion (Resumed) (5 Nov 2020)

Eoin Ó Broin: I am not being adversarial, but there could be a situation where the EPA's environmental assessment finds that an abstraction should not continue but it will not be empowered to do that. It will only be able to apply conditions. Surely that seems an odd scenario.