Results 81-100 of 13,533 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: We are trying to get maximum clarity around the two core pillars of the cost regime that the Bill proposes. The Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, earlier gave an outline of what is happening in the interdepartmental groups and when the Minister and his Department is meant to report back. The real question many of us have is that there has been a degree of certainty provided by the Heather...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Apr 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: Is the Minister in a position at this point to give us any indication on the following questions? Who will decide the scale of fees? Will that be a decision of the Government or of a particular Minister? What is the mechanism by which that will be introduced? With respect to the means test, is there any additional information the Minister can give us at this stage as to what that is...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Apr 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: What is the purpose of that? What does it mean?

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Apr 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: I apologise, I am not being in any way being disruptive. Does the £35,000 relate to income or costs?

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Apr 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: People can only get a maximum of £35,000 back.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Apr 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: What about the means test?

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Apr 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: Will it apply to individuals and organisations or how will it operate?

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Apr 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: It is pretty clear if it is a company, but the unincorporated bodies we have just discussed are collections of individuals. Would the means test apply to them collectively or what is the thinking?

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Apr 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: Let us say a residents' association has 100 members and 75% of them voted for judicial review.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Apr 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: Will the individual means tests of the 75 individuals who will be named in the affidavit in the judicial review be added up?

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Apr 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: The people in the residents' association.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Apr 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: They are unincorporated as per the example I am talking about, so will the means test apply to the residents' association, that is, the body with its credit union account and the money it has or the individuals who are-----

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Apr 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: The entity.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Apr 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: What does the Minister think about the question of the David and Goliath fear, that equal resources would not be available?

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Apr 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: Yes, absolutely, if both parties were seeking to recover their costs. However, there could be a corporate entity for whom recovery is not the primary interest in the case and that is quite willing to pay a significantly higher amount of fees on the market, notwithstanding that they will not be recovered.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Apr 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: That is my point.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Apr 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: It could be about the financial firepower of the other side in the case.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Apr 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: Yes, and that is part of my challenge.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Apr 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: Finally, to those legal professionals from the Law Society and the Bar Association who gave testimony to the committee and strongly argued that their fear about this uncertain scheme is that it will reopen what everyone thought was closed with the Heather Hill v. An Bord Pleanála case. That could lead to legal challenges and delays. What is the Minister's response to those legal...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Apr 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: I will make another point. It is not a question, although the Minister can reply if he wishes. I have not heard any legal professional support or respond positively to the architecture in the Bill during their engagement with the committee and in subsequent conversations. I want to put that on record. In any profession there are differing views. The legal specialists in the Bar Council...