As we go into the debate on amendments on the national planning statement, it is important that we first understand what the national planning statement is. We were speaking earlier about the NPF. That is an appropriate thing. It is the idea of having a planning framework under which we figure out how planning will work across the country. It has a vision and different checks and balances it has to be set against. It tries to take various crucial areas, such as climate and others, and is tasked with integrating the…

I will come in on a few of the Minister of State's responses. Let us tease things out for a minute. Senator McDowell was speaking about the national planning framework and the national planning statement. To be clear, I am in favour of plans and a national planning framework, with all the caveats and suggestions for changes I have made, but the section we are now discussing is a new proposal for a new layer to the planning system that centres, remarkably, around ministerial and departmental discretion in setting po…

I move amendment No. 87: In page 70, line 36, to delete "the Government" and substitute "both Houses of the Oireachtas".

I move amendment No. 89: In page 71, to delete lines 10 to 12, and substitute the following: "(5) The Minister shall, within 10 days of publication under subsection (3) , lay a copy of a National Planning Statement, amendment or revocation so published before each House of the Oireachtas and, if a resolution annulling the National Planning Statement, amendment or revocation is passed by either such House within the next 21 days on which that House has sat after the National Planning Statement, amendment or revocati…

I move amendment No. 91: In page 71, to delete lines 21 and 22.

I move amendment No. 92: In page 71, between lines 22 and 23, to insert the following: "(8) A National Planning Statement shall be consistent with the matters specified in section 21(2) .".

I move amendment No. 93: In page 71, to delete lines 23 to 25, and substitute the following: "(8) Any guidelines under section 52 of the Act of 2000 in force before the repeal of that section by section 6 , shall continue in force until the full application of Part 10 or where a National Planning Statement is issued which provides an equal or greater level of protection.".

I move amendment No. 97: In page 71, line 31, to delete "development plans".

I move amendment No. 98: In page 71, between lines 35 and 36, to insert the following: "(d) the promotion of sustainable development— (i) to reduce anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions; (ii) to support adaptation to and mitigation of climate change; (iii) to achieve the national climate objective, and (iv) to support the circular economy strategy (within the meaning of section 6 of the Circular Economy and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2022);".

I move amendment No. 101: In page 72, line 17, after "conducive to" to insert "sustainable".

I move amendment No. 102: In page 72, line 19, to delete "and transportation strategies" and substitute ", development and transportation strategies".

I move amendment No. 108: In page 73, line 1, to delete “may” and substitute “shall”.

I move amendment No. 109: In page 73, to delete lines 8 to 21, and substitute the following: “(4) The Minister shall,”.

I move amendment No. 113: In page 74, line 38, after “Chapter” to insert “where such a National Planning Statement addresses the matters contained in such guidelines”.

Amendment No. 117 seeks to strengthen the language around social development in a similar manner to amendment No. 65. It includes the word "social", which performs slightly different work than does "cultural" by itself, even though I am a big fan of cultural and I know others have amendments in this section looking at the very important issue of cultural matters, cultural spaces and cultural planning at a regional level. I insert the word "social" because something slightly different is captured by that, which pert…

I wish to indicate our support for Senator Warfield's amendment. I apologise as I had mentioned 5,000 nightclubs being reduced to 85. This was an obvious exaggeration as the decrease was 500 to 85, which is still extraordinarily alarming. We will support the amendment put by the Labour Party Senators regarding the linguistic and cultural heritage of the Irish language in Gaeltacht communities, which are crucial, not least at regional level, given that in many cases a Gaeltacht area will cross county boundaries, for…

There is an issue here, which is that we have been told this is plan-led development. The framework is plan-led development; the Minister's statement I regard as not really as credible as the planning framework. The language, "national planning policies and measures", sounds really weighty and authoritative and so on, but if we track it back to section 25, it is literally just a way of saying the things the Minister put in the planning statement. That is what that is. There is an assumption that the NPF and the nat…

I move amendment No. 117: In page 80, line 6, after “cultural” to insert “, social”.

I move amendment No. 120: In page 84, line 15, to delete “and”.

I move amendment No. 121: In page 84, between lines 15 and 16, to insert the following: “(v) where a regional spatial and economic strategy affects the provision or existence of cultural infrastructure and facilities, the need to protect such infrastructure and facilities, and”.