Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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87. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government when he expects the planning reforms to be implemented; how these reforms will speed up the delivery of critical infrastructure; if he will facilitate conversion of over retail premises for residential accommodation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23649/23]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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The draft Planning and Development Bill 2022 was published in January and the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage has undertaken a significant pre-legislative scrutiny process on the draft Bill. Their report contains more than 150 recommendations, which I am considering carefully. My Department continues to work closely with the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel to finalise the Bill, taking account of the pre-legislative scrutiny report and submissions from stakeholders more broadly. Once finalised, the Bill will be published and proceed before the Houses of the Oireachtas, subject to its schedule.

The draft Bill increases clarity, streamlines the legislation and improves coherence and usability for the public and practitioners. It also ensures alignment and consistency, both with European and environmental obligations and in relation to the various tiers of national, regional and local plan-making. Importantly, it provides greater certainty through the introduction of a range of statutory and mandatory timelines across the various consenting processes, including for An Bord Pleanála.

The Government, through the introduction of the Large-Scale Residential Developments process, continues to expedite the delivery of housing supply while also providing certainty and stability to the construction sector by retaining some of the positive elements of the SHD arrangements such as mandatory pre-application consultation, quality of applications submitted and decision timelines.

Finally, in keeping with the Government’s actions to bring more vacant and derelict properties back into use, the Planning and Development (Exempted Development) Regulations 2022 extended the exemption from the requirement to obtain planning permission in respect of the change of use of certain vacant commercial premises, including vacant or under-utilised areas over ground-floor shops and offices, to residential use until the end of 2025. These Regulations included a new and additional class of premises eligible to avail of the planning exemption, that of public houses capable of providing up to a maximum of 9 residential units.