Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2026: Committee and Remaining Stages Seanad Éireann — 2026-07-14 ============================================================ Victor Boyhan (IND), Agricultural Panel Senator Higgins has made an important point. I reiterate her concern regarding the Aarhus Convention, its protocols, the strategic environmental assessments and the other appropriate attached assessments. Somehow, when people are unhappy, they choose to ignore them. This really is an important issue. Ireland is a signatory to the convention and its protocols. We are bound by them. At all times, in our planning processes, protocols and code, we must encourage engagement. We must be a democracy open to genuine participative engagement in the planning process. Citizens are entitled to that. If the Minister of State or I had something happening in our backyard, we would be concerned, and rightly so. We at least need a level playing pitch for people to put forward their genuine concerns, based on the principles of proper planning, sustainable development and compliance with the Aarhus Convention. This is an important point when it comes to the development of the predominantly one- and two-bedroom units that have been described as boxes or cubes. We must remember that the local authorities are charged with the responsibility of carrying out an assessment of housing need. This is where we need agility and flexibility for councillors, in conjunction with their executive, namely, directors of services and chief executives. How can we tweak our future-forward planning to meet the housing needs of citizens within local administrative areas, with local authorities clearly having function and responsibility in that regard? We need flexibility, whether in Limerick City and County Council, which is the Minister of State's local authority, or elsewhere. Local authorities will understand from their housing assessment the projected needs for a period. We need agility and responsiveness in the system to be able to tweak and to build. I have no difficulty with apartment living. I know many people would wish to live in an apartment because of the likelihood it will have a central location. I see the potential for movement by people from the outskirts of cities and towns to central hubs where they are more likely to have access to apartments. I am not saying they will be affordable - it does not look like that will be the case - but the option of living in an apartment will appeal to some people. Our planning system must be responsive to the needs of local housing assessments but I do not see any evidence of that happening. There is a rush to throw up more buildings and bring in more money. All of that has been going on for years and it appears we are not learning much from it. Senator Higgins made her point really well regarding the Aarhus Convention. It is very important that we encourage and facilitate our citizens to engage with a meaningful planning engagement process. --- 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/2026-07-14/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:52:15+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-07-14