Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2026: Committee and Remaining Stages Seanad Éireann — 2026-07-14 ============================================================ Patricia Stephenson (SD), Labour Panel These amendments, in essence, make provision for a use-it-or-lose-it clause. Amendment No. 6 states: "An alteration of a permission referred to in subsection (3) shall be considered a material alteration if substantial works have not commenced 2 years from the point the permission was granted." We need this use-it-or-lose-it clause because we have a situation where people are receiving planning permission but are not actually commencing that permission. Now they will be allowed to extend the permission further on an asset. That is highly problematic. Section 62 inserts provisions that allow for alterations to planning permissions that may consist of increases in the number of apartments and decreases in the sizes of apartments in a development, in the number of windows in those apartments, the heights of the ceilings and the number of lifts and stairwells in these developments. Senator Boyhan spoke eloquently around the impact that these alterations could have on the development of society and positive places to live. The Minister of State stated that these are carrying over the provisions that were inserted into the Planning and Development Act 2000 by the Planning and Development (Amendment) Act 2025 and the Planning and Development Act 2024, but there are significant changes in these methods by which these alterations can occur. The 2025 Act created a system whereby the holder of a permission would have to apply to a relevant authority for a certificate certifying a proposed modification. The provisions in the Bill simply declare that the modifications in the newly inserted section 138A are not material alterations and therefore do not constitute a material alteration of a planning permission. The alterations permitted are clearly significant material alterations, so the fundamental approach of this section is flawed. It takes powers away from the local authorities when, in fact, we should be strengthening the powers of local authorities for decision-making under section 140 with regard to what constitutes a material alteration. We are undermining the role of local authorities rather than strengthening them. It is entirely non-compliant with the Aarhus Convention. Instead of fixing issues that have already been raised by the Aarhus Convention compliance committee, this section expands and compounds many of those issues. The provision inserted by the 2025 Act stated that the purpose of the section inserted by this Act was "to facilitate and encourage expedited construction of greater numbers of dwellings in apartment complexes" in the context of the housing crisis. However, the purpose of the section inserted by this Bill is just to enable the construction of a greater number of dwellings within residential developments within the same context. The language around the speeding-up of the delivery of these houses is now gone, which is curious, and the purpose of this Bill becomes much clearer. It is simply about creating more potential profit for developers. The core reason for increasing the level of profits in a development is so that developers can make more money. That is the language we are receiving now. Amendment No. 5 deletes paragraph (c) of the newly inserted section 138A, which provides that the design of apartment complexes can be modified to allow for 75% of apartments to be single aspect without such a modification being considered a material alteration, which is huge when we think about what should constitute a material alteration. As Senator Boyhan eloquently outlined, the weather in the past few weeks is testament to how dangerous and risky this provision is with regard to the whole area of single-aspect windows and homes. Unfortunately, we are only going to be getting hotter summers with climate change, and by approving the provisions in this Bill, we will be reducing the number of windows required by planning permissions for apartment developments. Amendment No. 6 will ensure that the provisions of section 138A(3) do not apply to any development that has not commenced two years prior to the permission being granted. This is to ensure that provisions in this section are not used simply as a way for developers who are sitting on uncommenced sites to increase the speculative value of those sites to make more money by waiting for further legislation. We need to move away from legislation that allows speculators to treat housing as an asset to make more money and profit. We have this model in Ireland, and it is not working. It is highly interesting that the language around expedited delivery is gone from the provisions being inserted into the 2024 Act. I understood that language, which acknowledged that we need to expedite housing delivery, but that is now gone, and I do not understand that. When I read the legislation, what is serves to do now is make the section not about speeding delivery but about increasing the bottom line for developers, given that the word "expedite" has been removed. --- 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