Grace O'Sullivan (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 13:

In page 10, between lines 39 and 40, to insert the following:"(iii) the Water Framework Directive,".

This Bill proposes to insert a new section 31S into the Planning and Development Act 2000. The new section provides for various policies, objectives and requirements to which the regulator must have regard. This list already includes a number of EU directives. The purpose of amendments Nos. 13 to 15, inclusive, is to add the water framework, floods and air quality directives to that list. During the Dáil debate on this Bill, the then Minister, Deputy Coveney, undertook to do this on Committee Stage, but this did not happen. I am reintroducing these amendments in order to strengthen the Bill.

Amendments Nos. 31 to 33, inclusive, propose to include the same references in the proposed new section 20C of the 2000 Act, which lists the matters to be addressed in any successor to the national spatial strategy and the national planning framework. These three amendments require the successor to the national planning framework to address the water framework, floods and air quality directives, respectively. The then Minister, Deputy Coveney, also undertook to bring forward a text to this effect.

Amendment No. 26 requires that planning decisions and plans such as development plans, as well as any other decisions taken under the Act, are consistent with the national objective for transition to a low-carbon, climate-resilient and environmentally-sustainable economy by 2050. These amendments, when taken together, merely tie together existing Government obligations. They try to bring coherence to the Bill and ensure it addresses all existing EU and national objectives in a comprehensive manner.