Results 121-140 of 1,055,401 for in 'Dáil debates' OR (speaker:Damien English OR speaker:Jim O'Callaghan OR speaker:Danny Healy-Rae OR speaker:Pádraig O'Sullivan OR speaker:Brian Leddin OR speaker:Eoin Ó Broin OR speaker:Steven Matthews OR speaker:Willie O'Dea) in 'Committee meetings'

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.

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)

Steven Matthews: Yes.

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

Steven Matthews: The planning nerds in the room and those watching on TV will gladly read through 200 or 400 pages of planning documents over the next couple of weeks. Many people do not have the time for that and would find it really difficult to get into those documents. Does the Department produce a non-technical summary or an easy-to-read introduction to the document? It would bring people into the...

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

Steven Matthews: I think that would be helpful, if it was the first thing people saw when they clicked on the website or the consultation portal. An introduction would show what the process is all about and what it is hoping to achieve. Beyond that, there could be reams and reams of detail for those who are interested.

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

Eoin Ó Broin: I am literally looking through the track-changes version of the document and just to say, that it is absolutely brilliant. That is just what we need. Is that document called the amendments' document?

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

Eoin Ó Broin: On page 58 of the amendments' document I want to pick up on Deputy Leddin's line of questioning so that I understand it. Table 4.1 on page 58 contains the amended population-growth targets by region. Two things jump out when I look at the tracked changes. While the range for population growth in Dublin city and the suburbs remains as it was at 20% to 25%, in Cork, Limerick, Galway and...

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

Eoin Ó Broin: That means that the actual end point at 2040 has not changed. It is just reflective of the distribution of population growth to date, from 2018 to 2023 or 2024. Is that correct?

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

Eoin Ó Broin: I have a supplementary question. In the last column on the right-hand side, all the minimum target population growth numbers are higher than they were in the previous document. Is that just reflective of the general overall increase in population growth? What explains that set of track changes?

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

Eoin Ó Broin: That is made clear. I will move to page 65 of the Department's amendment document, where a very interesting change is outlined. It will be remembered that what was national policy objective 10a was the creation of a national regeneration and development agency. In the language of the original NPF, NPO 10a clearly meant an active land management agency. In fact, at that stage, Mr. Hogan...