Results 241-260 of 6,071 for speaker:Cian O'Callaghan

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (17 Apr 2024)

Cian O'Callaghan: I will come in on this point and then Deputy Ó Broin can come in. I have not sought to amend and change section 377.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (17 Apr 2024)

Cian O'Callaghan: I am trying to build on section 377 and ensure this process is used, because it is rarely used now, as the Minister of State will know. The CPO powers in this section, which are similar to those in the existing legislation, allow local authorities to buy up land needed for housing. This is good. The problem is this power is not being used. What I am seeking to ensure, therefore, is that...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (17 Apr 2024)

Cian O'Callaghan: A huge amount of work was done on the Law Reform Commission report on CPO reform. I appreciate there is some additional work to be done at Department level or at the Minister of State’s end. However, given the amount of work that was done on it, why was that not incorporated into the Bill?

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (17 Apr 2024)

Cian O'Callaghan: At least the Minister of State is honest by saying “in time”. He is not giving us false hope of the speed of it. I wish to make one final point. I will use my constituency as an example. Much of the housing in my constituency was built because the local authority compulsorily purchased the land. It identified the housing need. The State put in the infrastructure. The...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (17 Apr 2024)

Cian O'Callaghan: That is my very point. There is nothing to stop this happening. That is my very point.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (17 Apr 2024)

Cian O'Callaghan: So we are in agreement on that. What we might also agree on is that it is not happening and it needs to happen. My amendment seeks to make sure this will happen. Rather than just having these provisions in the legislation that could be used and having housing strategies that clearly identify the need for the housing, there will be an obligation on a local authority to figure out the amount...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (17 Apr 2024)

Cian O'Callaghan: The Government is parting ways when it comes to the actual action we need to solve it.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (17 Apr 2024)

Cian O'Callaghan: I will look at amendment No. 919 first. Let us take that first. What is the reason and rationale for the exemption from Part V of housing on sites of land of 0.1 ha or less? Before there was more compact development, I can understand where one might have looked at that type of site and thought they could only get one or two-----

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (17 Apr 2024)

Cian O'Callaghan: Sorry, I only spoke on it because the Chair named it.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (17 Apr 2024)

Cian O'Callaghan: Because they were grouped together, I jumped straight to it. I apologise as I was not ready for it, so I had to read it. Amendment No. 919-----

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (17 Apr 2024)

Cian O'Callaghan: Yes. What is the rationale for that? I would understand if there was not denser development or whatever but, for example, ten apartments could surely fit on a 0.1 ha site. They would then be, because of this, exempt from Part V requirements. Why is the Minister of State specifically exempting that type of development from Part V?

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (17 Apr 2024)

Cian O'Callaghan: I appreciate this may not apply in a huge number of cases, but an extra one, two or three Part V social homes that could be achieved in different locations is valuable if they get someone off the social housing waiting lists or out of homelessness. Would the wording “consisting of the provision of four or fewer houses” not be sufficient in terms of restricting Part V?

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (17 Apr 2024)

Cian O'Callaghan: I know that. Would 3(a) not be sufficient?

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (17 Apr 2024)

Cian O'Callaghan: Okay, we will disagree on that.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (17 Apr 2024)

Cian O'Callaghan: Do local authorities refuse the certificates for these sort of sites? I see these kinds of exemption certificates being applied for and granted all of the time.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (17 Apr 2024)

Cian O'Callaghan: They do not, that is the problem.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (17 Apr 2024)

Cian O'Callaghan: Then we are losing Part V homes that are needed. We are all in agreement we need as many Part V homes as we can get. To have an exemption such as this was written presumably with good intention. However, we are in a slightly different situation with some developments that are coming forward in urban areas in terms of compact growth than we would have been when this was written originally....

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (17 Apr 2024)

Cian O'Callaghan: It could be said then that local authorities could grant certificates of exemption for Part V, full stop. Why is there the 0.1 ha? I do not believe it makes sense.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (17 Apr 2024)

Cian O'Callaghan: My amendment No. 910 relates to page 405 of the Bill after line 39, "to insert the following: “(12) Subsection (10) shall not operate to prevent the zoning of land for the particular use of providing affordable housing.”." Subsection (10) is about the housing strategy and providing that there is a general policy about the tenure mix and provisions around affordable housing as...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (17 Apr 2024)

Cian O'Callaghan: I do not really understand. If we have a housing strategy that states we need to provide thousands of affordable homes to meet a housing need in a local authority area, why not then have an affordable housing zoning to ensure sufficient land is available for affordable homes? If we are not going to oblige the local authority to dissemble land at affordable prices for affordable housing, as...