Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2025: Committee Stage
Seanad Éireann — 2025-07-15
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John Cummins (FG), Waterford

A briefing session was carried out with Oireachtas joint committee members on Monday. Importantly, these amendments could only have been made after the publication of the apartment guidelines last week.
Questions were asked about the costs. Details on savings were also provided to the Oireachtas joint committee. I appreciate Senator Boyhan is no longer on the Oireachtas Joint Committee for Housing, Local Government and Heritage but I will make sure he gets a copy. In general on the points that have been made, nobody can live in an apartment that is not built. This is the important thing to say. Reference has been made to shoeboxes. The only focus of the contributions has been one change being made to the size of studio apartments to 32 sq. m. As I said on the record of the House last week, everyone lauds and applauds Vienna and the model it has for social and affordable housing. The average size of a studio apartment in Vienna is 25 sq. m. We will have 32 sq. m for a studio apartment, with no change to one-bedroom apartments. It is important to state single people also need homes.
I will now address amendments Nos. 1, 2 and 3 to Government amendment No. 47, which concerns the modification of permission for residential development. Amendment No. 47 proposes to introduce a new section 44B to the Act of 2000, providing a certification procedure for modifications to planning permissions for residential development that are in line with certain specific planning policy requirements contained in the recently published Planning Design Standards for Apartments - Guidelines for Planning Authorities, 2025.
Amendment No. 1 to amendment No. 47, tabled by Senators McCormack, Murphy, Andrews, Collins, Ryan and Tully, seeks to include a requirement that applications for certificates under section 44B be notified to the public by way of a site notice. Subsection (13) of the proposed section 44B enables the Minister to make regulations for the purposes of this section. Where it is determined that a site notice is required, such a requirement will be introduced by regulations made under subsection (13), as is the case under the Planning and Development Regulations 2001.
Amendment No. 1 to amendment No. 47 further proposes that the relevant authority must provide for public participation in the certification process by inviting written submissions from interested persons or organisations, and the relevant authority must also have regard to those submissions when issuing a certificate under the proposed section 44B. The Aarhus Convention relates to access to information, public participation in decision-making and access to justice in environmental matters. Following discussions with the Office of the Attorney General, the Department remains satisfied that the Bill is in compliance with all international obligations, including the Aarhus Convention.
It is important to note that subsection (5)(b) of section 44B provides that a relevant authority cannot issue a certificate under section 44B if an appropriate assessment or environmental impact assessment of the proposed modification of the permission is required. Where an EIA or AA is required, such proposed modifications may only be sought by way of a planning application, a process that provides for public participation and notification. In this context, regulations made under section 44B will provide the screening procedures for an EIA and an AA to facilitate this provision. Given the urgent need to increase housing supply, section 44B enables a limited number of modifications to existing planning permissions to facilitate the building of much-needed apartment developments while ensuring environmental screening is carried out in respect of those modifications.
Amendment No. 2 to amendment No. 47, tabled by Senators Higgins and Stephenson, seeks to provide that a relevant authority shall not grant a certificate if the modification relates to the removal or reduction of communal space or cultural space within the proposed development. It should be noted that subsection (15) of section 44B defines "permitted modifications" for the purpose of the section. A number of references are contained therein to specific planning policy requirements in the new guidelines. These relate to apartment mix, apartment floor areas, dual aspect ratios, floor-to-ceiling heights, lift and stair cores, and works, including to footpaths, boundaries, gardens and balconies, required for the purposes of the foregoing, or to ensure access to the development. The removal or reduction of communal spaces or cultural space is not of itself a permitted modification. The permitted modifications will be predominantly internal, with any additional works allowable only permitted if they are necessary for the purposes of internal modifications or to ensure access to the development. It is for these reasons that I am not in a position to accept this amendment.
Amendment No. 3 to amendment No. 47 seeks to provide that any permitted modification shall be subject to fire safety certificates, health and safety certificates and any other appropriate certifications. I do not consider this provision necessary for two reasons. Subsection (5) of section 44B at paragraph (a) will preclude a relevant authority from issuing a certificate in respect of a development that has already commenced. Second, subsection (7) of section 44B provides that where a relevant authority issues a certificate, the permission stands modified in accordance with the terms of the proposed modification. The modified permission will be subject to building control requirements in the same manner as would have applied to the original permission, if commenced. For these reasons, I cannot accept this amendment.
I will now address amendments Nos. 4 and 5 to amendment No. 47, as tabled by Senators Higgins and Stephenson. Amendments Nos. 4 and 5 propose the insertion of a new subsection (16) into the proposed new section 44B. Amendment No. 4 to amendment No. 47 seeks to provide that any permitted modification to the mixture of apartments of different classes shall be a varied mix of different classes of apartments. I cannot accept this amendment as it conflicts with specific planning policy requirement, SPPR, 1 in the recently published planning design standards for apartments. Under SPPR 1, with the exception of certain specified social housing developments, there are no minimum or maximum requirements for apartments with a certain number of bedrooms.
Amendment No. 5 to amendment No. 47 seeks to reduce the duration of a modified permission to six months. I do not consider this to be an appropriate measure as it could reduce the likelihood of the holder of a permission applying for a certificate under the proposed section 44B and in some cases could reduce the duration of an existing permission by a significant period of time. For these reasons I am not in a position to accept this amendment.
My amendment No. 47 will introduce a new section 44B to the Act of 2000, providing a certification procedure for modifications to planning permissions for residential development that are in line with certain specific planning policy requirements contained in the recently published Planning Design Standards for Apartments - Guidelines for Planning Authorities, 2025. Viability presents an ongoing challenge to housing delivery and this is particularly relevant for the delivery of apartments, where a considerable gap has emerged between the cost of delivering apartment development and comparable general housing market prices.
The new guidelines provide guidance, standards and policy requirements in relation to the design of apartment developments to take account of current Government policy and economic, social and environmental considerations. Given the urgent need to increase housing supply, the proposed section 44B will enable the holders of existing permissions for apartment developments that have not yet commenced to modify their permissions in line with the new guidelines. As the provision explicitly sets out, its purpose is to facilitate the construction of greater numbers of dwellings in apartment complexes than permitted under permissions already granted, taking account of the acute shortage of residential accommodation, the rise in homelessness, the rise in the cost of residential rental accommodation and house and apartment purchase prices.
Section 44B enables the holder of a permission for residential development to apply to the relevant authority that granted the permission, either a planning authority or An Coimisiún Pleanála, to certify that a proposed modification of a permission is a permitted modification. The relevant authority must be satisfied that the proposed modification, if made, would be a permitted modification in order for a certificate to issue. Applications for certificates will need to be accompanied by revised plans and drawings and other documentation and information related to the proposed modification for purposes including the carrying out of environmental screening.
Certificates will not be issued for proposed modifications if the development has already commenced, if an appropriate assessment or environmental impact assessment in respect of the proposed modification is required or if the applicant for the certificate fails to comply with requests for any documentation or further information. In addition, if the development is located in a strategic development zone, a certificate cannot be issued if the proposed modification would cause the number of dwellings in that strategic development zone to exceed the number permitted by its planning scheme.
Where a certificate is issued, the planning permission will stand so modified and any development carried out in accordance with the modified permission will not be unauthorised development. Public notification requirements are set out requiring the relevant authority to issue a public notice in a newspaper and on its website as well as making the relevant documentation available for inspection, including on its website. Section 44B is a temporary provision and certificate applications for proposed modifications must be made within two years of the Bill coming into operation, that is, by July 2027.
Amendments Nos. 32, 48 and 49 are consequential to the introduction of this new certification procedure for modifications to existing apartment permissions. Amendment No. 32 amends section 7 of the Act of 2000 to provide that particulars of any permission modified in accordance with section 44B must be entered into a planning authority's register. Senators Stephenson and Higgins have proposed an amendment to amendment No. 49 that seeks to provide that any fees set should not be prohibitively expensive. I cannot accept this proposed amendment as it is unnecessary given section 246 of the Act of 2000 has appropriate safeguards in place and provides that, in setting fees, the amount shall be related to the estimated cost of the development or the unauthorised part thereof, as the case may be. It also provides that fees for making copies shall not exceed the reasonable cost of making such copies.
Amendments Nos. 48 and 49 concern the setting of fees for certification applications and propose to amend section 246 of the Act of 2000, whereby the Minister may prescribe in regulation a fee in respect of applications under section 44B , and section 144 of that Act to facilitate the commission to set a fee in respect of such applications where it is the relevant authority.
I appreciate there was a lot of content in that response but it was important to respond to the amendments to the Government amendments and to give the background and detail behind the amendments Government is proposing.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2025-07-15/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:03+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-07-15