Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 5:

In page 4, between lines 35 and 36, to insert the following: “Amendment of section 28 (Ministerial guidelines) of Principal Act

3. Section 28 of the Principal Act (as amended by section 20 of the Planning and Development (Amendment) Act 2018) is amended by the deletion of subsection (1C).”.

I welcome the Minister to the House. These two amendments scrap the controversial power the Minister has to make dramatic changes to planning law without a vote in the Oireachtas. They also ban substandard design of built-to-rent and co-living properties for renters and repeal the building height guidelines.

On amendment No. 5, in 2016, the then Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Kelly, introduced highly controversial legislation that gave the Minister with responsibility for planning the power to unilaterally introduce changes to planning law without a vote of the Oireachtas. This meant Ministers could introduce mandatory planning guidelines which would override the democratically agreed decisions of city and county councillors. These would then have to be complied with by An Bord Pleanála, local authorities and others.

On amendment No. 6, in 2018, the then Minister, Mr. Eoghan Murphy, published the mandatory ministerial guidelines for apartment dwellings. These guidelines allowed for two fundamental changes to building standards which opened the door to co-living and build-to-rent developments. The current Minister claims co-living is gone, although I disagree as there is a back door in regulations. While there is a presumption against planning permission, this may not apply if a development is "required to meet specific demand identified by a local planning authority further to a Housing Need and Demand Assessment (HNDA) process". These same planning guidelines also introduced build-to-rent design standards that were lower than in the case of apartments being built for purchase.

I hope the Minister can accept these amendments, which were well drafted by our team. I look forward to his response.