Results 101-120 of 1,044,939 for in 'Dáil debates' OR (speaker:Margaret Conlon OR speaker:Brian Leddin OR speaker:Thomas Pringle OR speaker:Steven Matthews OR speaker:Gino Kenny OR speaker:Carol Nolan) in 'Committee meetings'

Agriculture Appeals (Amendment) Bill 2024: Second Stage (11 Jul 2024)

Patrick Costello: This legislation has received a broad welcome from Deputies and the farming organisations. However, there is a broader issue here in the context of how we approach rights and obligations and the enforcement of same. To be blunt, we have created a Byzantine mess of quasi-judicial bodies. There is ultimately a risk of constitutional weakness, vulnerability and challenge to many of these and...

Agriculture Appeals (Amendment) Bill 2024: Second Stage (11 Jul 2024)

Rose Conway-Walsh: I welcome the Bill. In everything we do in this area, our concern is that there be fairness for farmers. It is also about bringing the enjoyment back into farming. The Minister knows all about the various schemes, the associated bureaucracy and everything that has happened over the years. I accept completely that there must be proper governance of everything that is done. However, the...

Agriculture Appeals (Amendment) Bill 2024: Second Stage (11 Jul 2024)

Claire Kerrane: I welcome the legislation and commend the Minister for making it happen. I know this was a commitment that was made, not least in the programme for Government. It is good to see the legislation before the House this afternoon. The Minister mentioned the pre-legislative scrutiny undertaken by the committee on agriculture and the report that was published subsequently. I am very glad that...

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

Steven Matthews: I welcome everybody to the Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage. The committee meets this afternoon as part of the consultation on the draft national planning framework, NPF. We are joined by the following officials from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Mr. Paul Hogan, acting assistant secretary in the planning division; Ms Alma Walsh, senior...

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

Steven Matthews: I thank Mr. Hogan.

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

Steven Matthews: Please, go ahead.

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

Steven Matthews: For the information of members, although we received the draft document yesterday, we also received a lot of other documentation, including the Natura impact statements and the strategic environmental assessment, SEA, statements. It is a kind of changes document. Is that the one to which Ms Walsh is referring? We have that in our Teams folder.

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

Steven Matthews: Yes. It is 270 pages long with the draft itself. It compares the 2018 national planning framework to what is proposed in this draft one. There are strikeouts and so on. It is a helpful document. As regards the eight-week or ten-week consultation period, or however long the period is, I am in two minds about whether it is good or not during the summer. I find I have more time on my...

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

Steven Matthews: Obviously, if Senator Cummins makes a submission as part of this consultation to clarify the points he is making, the officials will take those into account. Will the officials come back to the committee to tell us if they can define the commuting zone, the functional urban area, the criteria for inclusion of an area within a MASP, and clarify the ability of the regional assemblies to...

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)

Steven Matthews: We had not invited the Minister but I do not think the committee would have any objection to that. Our next meeting when we return is with the Electoral Commission but I would not have any issue with inviting the Minister of State, Deputy Dillon, in as part of that consultation.

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.