Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2026: Committee and Remaining Stages
Dail Éireann — 2026-07-08
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Eoin Ó Broin (SF), Dublin Mid-West

I move amendment No. 1:
In page 10, between lines 11 and 12, to insert the following:
“Report on impact of amendments related to Judicial Reviews
4. The Minister shall lay a report before both Houses of the Oireachtas within 12 months of the commencement of this Act detailing the impact of the amendments to Part 4 of the Principal Act related to Judicial Reviews and detailing whether the procedural changes have resulted in a speeding up of planning related Judicial Reviews or increased the volume of planning litigation resulting in increased delays for residential and infrastructural development.”.
This is a poor way of progressing a complex and technical piece of planning legislation. It is unlike the Bill we have just disposed of, in respect of which we had three dedicated committee sessions and were able to interact with ministerial colleagues and officials. While not successful in changing any of the Bill, we were able to obtain significant clarifications. Essentially, we are being given two hours to do Committee and Remaining Stages of an 83-page Bill. In this format, on the floor of the Dáil, it is incredibly difficult to do the work that many of us would like to do. I am not going to dignify the way in which the Government is rushing this through by attempting to conduct Committee Stage, because this format is not conducive to doing so.
I know the Minister of State, Deputy Cummins, will not accept the amendment, but there are concerns that the proposed alterations to judicial review could result in increased litigation. My primary concern is that, as a consequence of the relevant sections of the Bill, there will be increased litigation and, therefore, increased delays. We are asking for the Minister and his officials to track how this operates over the next 12 to 24 months and report back to our committee in some form or another. I do not want to waste people’s time in having an argument about an amendment that the Minister of State is clearly not going to accept. However, I think he will be able to accept the principle that if the changes the Government is making have the unintended consequence of increasing litigation and causing delay to much-needed critical infrastructure, housing or renewable energy projects, they will be monitored and, if necessary, legislative amendments will be brought forward to rectify those problems into the future.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-07-08/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:07+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-07-08