Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2026: Second Stage Seanad Éireann — 2026-07-09 ============================================================ Eileen Lynch (FG), Agricultural Panel I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House to present the Bill. I welcome the opportunity to contribute to Second Stage of the Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2026. As the Minister of State has outlined, the Bill implements the reforms agreed in 2024 which should accelerate the supply of housing. The housing crisis is the defining challenge facing this country and we all see the impacts in our constituencies. The Planning and Development Act 2024 was the largest reform of our planning legislation in a generation and it is vital that we expedite those changes. The Bill contains a number of targeted amendments that will improve how our planning system operates. While many of the provisions are technical, they are important because they will help to provide greater certainty in planning, support housing delivery and improve the efficiency of the system. From the perspective of rural Ireland, these are incredibly welcome developments. One of the provisions I particularly welcome is the move to ten-year county development plans. Local authorities make long-term decisions on housing, infrastructure, transport and economic development. Expanding the lifespan of county development plans provides greater stability for those decisions while reducing the frequency of full plan reviews. It allows local authorities to focus more on implementation, while still retaining mechanisms to review plans where circumstances change. For rural counties where infrastructure projects and housing developments often take a number of years to progress, a longer planning horizon makes practical sense. It gives communities, businesses and developers a clear understanding of the direction of development over a longer period. I also believe a longer county development plan will give greater certainty to councillors. I would like to note that we need to give greater powers to local councillors. They work with people on the ground every day and know the challenges in their local area. For successive years, we have seen the continual erosion of their powers and have allowed this to happen. In my time on Cork County Council, I found the county development plan process to be very frustrating and at times it was difficult for councillors to have any meaningful impact. There was also a disregard for the consideration of social infrastructure in the context of increased housing infrastructure and this needs to change. I would very much like to welcome the increase in the statutory borrowing limit for the Housing Finance Agency outlined in the Bill. The Housing Finance Agency has become an increasingly important source of finance for local authorities and approved housing bodies. As housing output continues to increase, it is important that the agency has the capacity to continue supporting new delivery. This is relevant in every part of the country, including rural Ireland. Housing need is in no way confined to our cities. Smaller towns and villages are experiencing massive shortages of affordable and private housing. If we want people to continue living and working in rural communities, we need a consistent pipeline of housing delivery, and ensuring appropriate financing is available is an important part of that. I would like to welcome the publication last week of the rural housing guidelines. Coming from the rural village of Aghabullogue in Cork north-west, I know these guidelines can make a real difference to the provision of rural housing, making the system less bureaucratic and decreasing the subjectivity and differing opinions of different planners. These guidelines will allow for uniformity. I urge the Minister of State to ensure that the guidelines are implemented as soon as possible. I note they may not be adopted until early next year. I also note the comments of the Minister, Deputy Browne, that he hopes local authorities will bear the new guidelines in mind going forward, even before they are formally adopted. I was incredibly disappointed to be advised by a councillor from Cork that a planner had told them that they would not implement the guidelines until they were adopted and did not believe they would make any difference. We need local authorities - that is, the chief executive and personnel - to support these fully. I have yet to speak to a councillor across the country who disagrees with them, so we need to ensure that executives are on board with this. I welcome the reforms relating to judicial review. Judicial review, as we all know, performs an important function within our planning system and our Judiciary. It ensures that decisions are made lawfully and fairly, and that principle has to remain protected. However, it also important that the process operates as efficiently as possible and that judicial review does not lead to delays. Delays can have significant consequences for housing delivery and essential infrastructure projects. The changes proposed in the Bill seek to make the judicial review process more efficient while maintaining these appropriate legal safeguards, and that balance is important. We need a planning system that protects people's rights but also provides timely decisions and greater certainty for those delivering housing and public infrastructure. More broadly, this Bill reflects the need to continually improve our planning system as demand for it evolves. The system has to be capable of supporting housing growth, balanced regional development and investment in infrastructure, while continuing to uphold proper planning principles and environmental standards. The Bill will not address every issue within the planning system, nor is it intended to. However, the measures before us represent sensible improvements that should make the system more effective and provide greater certainty for local authorities and those seeking to deliver housing. For those reasons, I am happy to support the Bill and I look forward to its continued progress through the House. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-07-09/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:11+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-07-09