Results 541-560 of 1,059,719 for in 'Dáil debates' OR in 'Committee meetings' (speaker:Tom Kitt OR speaker:Darren O'Rourke OR speaker:Cian O'Callaghan OR speaker:Brian Leddin OR speaker:Aindrias Moynihan OR speaker:Jennifer Carroll MacNeill OR speaker:Seán Sherlock OR speaker:Pearse Doherty)

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Consultation on the Draft National Planning Framework: Discussion (11 Jul 2024)

Brian Leddin: I thank the Cathaoirleach and welcome our guests today. Would they agree this is one of the most important documents this Government will publish and agree?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Consultation on the Draft National Planning Framework: Discussion (11 Jul 2024)

Brian Leddin: The officials would agree, I expect, that this document will shape the country for years and decades to come. That is what it intends to do.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Consultation on the Draft National Planning Framework: Discussion (11 Jul 2024)

Brian Leddin: No, but it intends to be a strategy document and, as Mr. Hogan said, a high-level document that sets out the shape of the country in the next few decades.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Consultation on the Draft National Planning Framework: Discussion (11 Jul 2024)

Brian Leddin: Therefore it is critically important. A Chathaoirligh, I would like to know why the Minister is not here because it is such an important document. Was the Minister invited?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Consultation on the Draft National Planning Framework: Discussion (11 Jul 2024)

Brian Leddin: I thank the Cathaoirleach. I think it should be the Minister of State, Deputy Dillon, and the Minister, Deputy O’Brien. This document, when it is agreed, will set the country on a path for the next few decades. It is not a loose thing. It is a hugely important thing and it should be the Minister who owns the document that is before us, notwithstanding the work his team have put...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Consultation on the Draft National Planning Framework: Discussion (11 Jul 2024)

Brian Leddin: There is no rebalance here. If anything, there is a move away from balance from the original 2018 document because the Department is targeting population growth of nearly 300,000 for Dublin city, which is more than all of the regional cities combined. I do not know how that is balance. Essentially, the spirit of the original national planning framework was that the gap in population and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Consultation on the Draft National Planning Framework: Discussion (11 Jul 2024)

Brian Leddin: It is a retrenchment.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Consultation on the Draft National Planning Framework: Discussion (11 Jul 2024)

Brian Leddin: No one is suggesting that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Consultation on the Draft National Planning Framework: Discussion (11 Jul 2024)

Brian Leddin: It is not balanced by any definition of the word. The Department is proposing that a city 1.5 times the size of Cork city will be squeezed into the capital in 15 years’ time. Given all its constraints, Dublin is bursting at the seams. What the Department is proposing to do is quite a bit more difficult than if the strategy were to significantly target growth to the regions and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Consultation on the Draft National Planning Framework: Discussion (11 Jul 2024)

Brian Leddin: There is a fudge in this document because it talks about relative growth in the regional cities rather than absolute numbers, so it looks like the growth is quite significant. However, if we are talking about a vision for the country and where the more than 1 million additional people will live in 2040, we should be talking about absolute numbers and we should have far greater ambition.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Consultation on the Draft National Planning Framework: Discussion (11 Jul 2024)

Brian Leddin: That is because of the lack of strategic planning.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Consultation on the Draft National Planning Framework: Discussion (11 Jul 2024)

Brian Leddin: Indeed.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Consultation on the Draft National Planning Framework: Discussion (11 Jul 2024)

Brian Leddin: If this is worthy of the term “strategy”, it is a Dublin growth strategy or greater Dublin area growth strategy but in terms of national strategy planning, it is not a strategy or a vision. It is reactive, responsive and demand-led. It is not saying what kind of country we want in 2040, 2050 and beyond, where we want people to live, where we want economic development or what...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Consultation on the Draft National Planning Framework: Discussion (11 Jul 2024)

Cian O'Callaghan: I thank the Department officials for coming in. I have questions on a few different areas. What was the deadline for the revision of the NPF? Was it 28 May?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Consultation on the Draft National Planning Framework: Discussion (11 Jul 2024)

Cian O'Callaghan: Has that deadline been missed given that we are into July?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Consultation on the Draft National Planning Framework: Discussion (11 Jul 2024)

Cian O'Callaghan: Is it to make that decision within six years?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Consultation on the Draft National Planning Framework: Discussion (11 Jul 2024)

Cian O'Callaghan: How are embodied carbon and reducing carbon emissions from development addressed in the revised NPF?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Consultation on the Draft National Planning Framework: Discussion (11 Jul 2024)

Cian O'Callaghan: Sure.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Consultation on the Draft National Planning Framework: Discussion (11 Jul 2024)

Cian O'Callaghan: On the issue of compact growth and city-focused growth, which runs through the document, one of the key challenges in terms of developing more housing and compact growth in cities involves issues around affordability. How is this addressed in the revised NPF? What measures are there to promote more affordability in terms of compact growth and city-focused growth?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Consultation on the Draft National Planning Framework: Discussion (11 Jul 2024)

Cian O'Callaghan: To clarify, when I talk about affordability, I am not just talking about tenure type. You can have affordable housing, affordable rent or rent as a tenure type. I am talking about affordability in general. One of the blockages for people in accessing housing in cities in terms of compact growth is affordability. It can be more affordable to access housing such as private tenure housing in...