Results 1,501-1,520 of 14,975 for speaker:Eoin Ó Broin
- Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Apr 2024)
Eoin Ó Broin: I know, but he used the phrase that "sunlight is the best disinfectant for ...".
- Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Apr 2024)
Eoin Ó Broin: Okay. I am not so sure in this discussion it is the best choice of language, but how and ever. On the substantive point, with all these sections one of the things we are trying to understand is what problem the legislation is trying to fix. When significant changes to legislation are introduced, generally they are trying to resolve, fix or address a problem. It used to be pretty unheard...
- Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Apr 2024)
Eoin Ó Broin: Sure, but there is plenty of time between listening to the question and answering it. The Minister of State should go ahead. I do not want to interrupt.
- Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Apr 2024)
Eoin Ó Broin: Now that I have the Minister of State's attention, it used to be pretty unheard of-----
- Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Apr 2024)
Eoin Ó Broin: We will see about that. For a long time it was virtually unheard of for residents' associations to take judicial reviews on residential developments. It was literally exceptionally rare. The surge of judicial reviews that took place a number of years ago has now significantly dissipated. There are fewer and fewer judicial reviews being taken by residents' associations, so I am trying to...
- Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Apr 2024)
Eoin Ó Broin: I had two other questions concerning why there is a requirement for two thirds of the members and regarding the chill factor and fear of strategic litigation.
- Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Apr 2024)
Eoin Ó Broin: It was about the chill factor and the fear of strategic litigation.
- Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Apr 2024)
Eoin Ó Broin: When bodies representing residents associations, then, like the Dublin Democratic Planning Alliance, came to this committee during pre-legislative scrutiny and expressed a direct concern about exposing members of the residents associations beyond the officer board to strategic litigation against public participation undertaken by developers, including cases where this has actually happened,...
- Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Apr 2024)
Eoin Ó Broin: For whom is it not a concern?
- Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Apr 2024)
Eoin Ó Broin: I thank the Cathaoirleach.
- Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Apr 2024)
Eoin Ó Broin: Yes.
- Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Apr 2024)
Eoin Ó Broin: Exactly. During pre-legislative scrutiny, in fact, I think it was Senator Mary Seery Kearney of Fine Gael who raised this issue directly because a residents association in the neighbourhood in which she lived and that she had supported had been subject to a threat and legal correspondence around defamation. I think it was a Tidy Towns group out in the southern part of County Dublin.
- Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Apr 2024)
Eoin Ó Broin: No. There are two things. Again, these are the views that were expressed-----
- Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Apr 2024)
Eoin Ó Broin: It is useful for the Minister of State to hear the issues raised during pre-legislative scrutiny. If the Chair remembers when the Dublin Democratic Planning Alliance representatives were in with us, as well as representatives from other groups, they expressed two concerns with regard to this particular provision. One was that it could open a larger group of members of the residents...
- Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Apr 2024)
Eoin Ó Broin: -----which, in and of itself, could influence their votes in the meeting. Second, where cost protection is not provided, those individual named members either could be or could fear being financially liable for the costs, even though they were good-faith actors and engaged in the process in good faith.
- Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Apr 2024)
Eoin Ó Broin: Until we see the full details-----
- Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Apr 2024)
Eoin Ó Broin: Sure, but until we see the full detail of the cost protection regime and the legal aid system, we will not know the exact operational extent of it. All I am doing is expressing the views that people expressed to the committee, but it seems the Minister of State does not think these are problems at all. On that basis, we will leave the matter there.
- Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Apr 2024)
Eoin Ó Broin: Not agreed. I think Deputy O'Callaghan has a question.
- Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Apr 2024)
Eoin Ó Broin: The Minister spoke about how someone may be "materially affected by the matter". Is that defined or how is that to be determined?
- Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Apr 2024)
Eoin Ó Broin: I presume an individual would not be able to make the case that they might be indirectly affected materially at an environmental level, for example, by pollution or by impact on climate or-----