Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Amendment No. 44 complements measures agreed to in the Dáil debate on the Bill to address the past performance of developers in the consideration of planning applications. I commenced my approach to this issue during the Committee Stage in the Dáil by tabling an amendment to section 34 of the principal Act which would require planning authorities in the assessment and determination of planning applications to have regard to previous developments, which have not been satisfactorily completed and previous convictions against the applicant for non-compliance with the planning Act, the Building Control Act 2007 or the Fire Service Act 1981. I subsequently brought forward a second amendment on Report Stage in the Dáil to elaborate on this and address section 35 of the principal Act relating to the actual refusal of applications for planning permission for past failures to comply. Specifically, that amendment proposed that where a person has previously operated under a particular company name that has left estates unfinished and has subsequently applied for planning permission for new development under a different company name, that this may be taken into account by the planning authority as the basis for refusing the planning application under the second company name. That second amendment dealing with the past performance of developers which I tabled on Report Stage was inadvertently noted as withdrawn and consequently I am now retabling it on Committee Stage in the Seanad.