Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2026: Second Stage Seanad Éireann — 2026-07-09 ============================================================ Victor Boyhan (IND), Agricultural Panel I welcome the Minister of State and his officials. I thank his officials for arranging a briefing earlier in the week. I found it exceptionally helpful, particularly the clarity. I thank them for the memo I received this morning in relation to the material contravention of the development plan and the importance of the clarity around what factors determined when a material contravention process was invoked in assessing and determining a planning application. That was questioned by An Coimisiún Pleanála. It was an issue that was raised with the Office of the Planning Regulator. It was raised by a number of directors of planning across our 31 local authorities. That sort of clarity is to be welcomed and I reiterate my thanks to the officials for their engagement with the process. It occurs to me was that here we are tidying up or organising the elements of the Planning and Development Act 2024. I looked this morning at the record of the House and the debates on that Act as the Planning and Development Bill 2023. The Bill was guillotined in this House but we had a very long engagement on it. The Bill was approved in the Dáil, of course, despite all the setbacks and the debate about timing and processing, but that is not the substantive issue I am going to talk about here. The Bill was voted on by Seanad Éireann; there was a division on Wednesday, 25 September 2024. I think that is an important point. I want to give my apologies in advance. I have a meeting with the Bar Council at 12 noon. It is now after 12 noon but I want to say that, out of no discourtesy to the Minister of State, I will unfortunately have to leave after I make my contribution. However, I am committed to engaging with this process for as long as it goes on. We know that the main purpose of the Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2026 is to support the transition of the remaining provisions of the Planning and Development Act 2024 and the introduction of ten-year county development plans. We had some debate about that. I had concerns at the time but I am not using the ten minutes I have to revisit those issues. That is in the legislation. At the very kernel of all of this is that we have the timely delivery of critical infrastructure. We know that progress has been made and subgroups have been dealing with it. Indeed, the Minister, Deputy Jack Chambers, has driven this whole area of infrastructure and all of that. I wish to raise a few issues, not necessarily in the order of how they come in the Bill, but they are issues that have come to my attention because I have engaged with our city and county councillors in relation to this process today. I have tried to ascertain from them some of their concerns because I see myself very much as a conduit for them on the floor of the Seanad. Regarding the Office of the Planning Regulator, a review was carried out. It has been completed, and it is important that we publish it as soon as possible. There were learnings. It was always anticipated that there would be learnings in the process of establishing a new Office of the Planning Regulator. I want to put on record my thanks to the Planning Regulator. One of the things that keeps coming back to me from city and county councillors and the Association of Irish Local Government, AILG, is the very positive engagement with the Planning Regulator in regard to the modular training and stuff it organises for councillors in conjunction with the AILG. It is very helpful for members. City and county councillors are not planners, architects or engineers but they are fiercely committed on the ground in regard to the delivery of proper planning and sustainable development for their communities. The Minister of State will understand that very well as someone who was a councillor for many years, and he will understand this process. I wanted to make that point to acknowledge the significance of the Office of the Planning Regulator and support it. I note the references in the legislation to the office. I fully support the accelerating infrastructure report and action plan. The definition of the material contravention was really important. I want to spend a little bit of time on public participation in environmental scrutiny and planning processes, which is not an enemy of progress. I think that is an important point to get across here. There needs to be a greater focus in government, as the Minister of State and everyone knows, on converting existing planning permissions and commencements into completed homes. Now, that is a loaded sentence. There needs to be a greater emphasis on the many thousands - it is estimated to be over 100,000 - empty or derelict properties across this country. It was covered extensively in the Sunday Independent last Sunday. Efforts are being made but a lot more has to be done. Public infrastructure is, of course, critical to the importance of delivering houses and I fully accept that. In relation to the rural housing guidelines, I am delighted that they have come about but the passage of time seems to be a bit long. There will be a requirement for an environmental impact assessment, EIA, and an environmental impact statement, EIS. All of that is important. I ask again, as I have always asked and argued, that there be a statutory public consultation because we need to get it right. I could paper the walls of this House with all the letters telling me that these guidelines will be published six weeks later. Failure to facilitate meaningful public participation is a great concern to me. We are conscious, as the Minister of State is, of the Aarhus Convention, the protocols and the strategic environmental assessment requirements. I ask that this be the centre of all of our planning going forward, with open engagement. When I talk about open engagement, I am talking about engagement that permits and is capable of allowing our citizens to influence policy and choice before decisions are effectively made and taken out of their hands. Predetermining outcomes in relation to proper planning and sustainable development is not and should not be the way we proceed. Local authority planning functions are important. The Minister of State knows, as I do, the importance of our elected members. I know the difference between a reserve function and an executive function, and where our members have reserve functions, they must be supported in doing them. As I have said time and again, councillors are not planners and engineers but they are clearly interested and focused on protecting the sustainable, progressive future of their communities. We also need to give our councillors and our planning and housing authorities locally, of which there are 31, the ability to take into account planning that is agile enough to have regard to the housing assessment. That is important. Subsidiarity is at the very core of the principle of planning, or it should be. It is certainly one espoused by the European Union and our Houses, so it is important that we give discretion to our planning authorities and local democracy. Local administration, at best, is what it is at the moment but that will, I hope, change over time. As elected representatives in their communities, they need to be able to determine the outcome and a local response to a local need in respect of planning and housing, which is all central to this. I referred to the Office of the Planning Regulator. I have talked about An Coimisiún Pleanála. That body is up and running and it has had issues. We need fully to embrace technology and innovation. People all over the country should be able to engage in the planning process online, if they are able to do so. Certainly, there should be one-stop shops or hubs in public libraries and public buildings to assist people to avail of that technology if they wish to pursue it. There are still shortcomings in An Comisiún Pleanála. A developer who is building houses told me recently that there is a fear on the part of an comisiún to engage with him. This is a person who has extant permission to build homes and has built numerous very successful complexes. The ability of An Comisiún Pleanála to disengage with developers and home builders is a bit of a problem. The Minister of State and his officials, outside the context of this legislation, might look at what is going on in terms of that type of break in engagement. I have some concerns about the judicial review process. I will not elaborate on them today because we will have an opportunity to discuss this on Committee Stage. It is really important that participation be at the very core of our approach. I signal now to the Minister of State that I will oppose the proposals in the Bill in relation to apartments. I do not support one-size single-aspect apartments. The temperature in my south-facing office in Leinster House, which has no air conditioning, has been above 30°C for the past two weeks. It occurred to me that the same could be the case with a studio apartment. I am against the modification of apartment standards. I understand there can be smart moves taken in this regard but I am opposed to plans for single-aspect apartments. The Land Development Agency was the subject of some negative commentary in the Irish Independent this morning. I hold great hope and ambition for the agency. We need a Housing Agency that drives State housing programmes in partnership with the private sector. That very much must be part of a slicker, more efficient planning process. I wish the Minister of State well. I acknowledge what he is seeking to do. There are some modifications at best but, given the timeframe on this legislation, I do not anticipate that he will be taking on board any amendments. We are all realists in this House. It is important that he listens, takes note of Members' concerns and, where possible, incorporates them into meaningful dialogue with the various authorities around planning. --- 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