JOINT COMMITTEE ON THE ENVIRONMENT, HERITAGE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT debate -
Tuesday, 20 Oct 2009

Business of Joint Committee.

Chairman

I call the meeting to order. The first item on the agenda is the minutes of the meeting of 16 October 2009. Are the minutes, which have been circulated agreed? Agreed. The next item on our agenda is correspondence. The list of correspondence since the last meeting has been circulated to members. The first item pertains to a complaint the joint committee has received from concerned residents of Annascaul about planning for a Tetra Ireland mast. They complain about the granting of planning permission for masts in some locations and the refusal to so do in others. We should simply note it because we cannot get into such individual cases. Do members have a problem with so doing? We will agree to note it, which is as much as we can do because we cannot second-guess local decisions.

The next item concerns an inquiry by Deputy Christy O'Sullivan into the recruitment of polling station staff. I invite Deputy O'Sullivan to speak on this topic.

Deputy Christy O’Sullivan

I thank the Chairman for giving me the opportunity to speak on this issue. This matter has been raised by some of my constituents over time and I seek clarification on how people are appointed to these positions, what are the criteria and is there an interview process? Is someone in the Department responsible for such appointments? I wrote to the Minister, Deputy Gormley, who replied that it is not his responsibility but is the sole responsibility of the returning officer. Who appoints the returning officer and to whom is he or she answerable? Were something to go wrong, where would it finish up or who would be responsible? I seek to establish who has overall responsibility. Other members may have similar questions.

Chairman

Such as whether there is a complaints procedure.

Deputy Christy O’Sullivan

Has the joint committee received anything on this matter since I wrote to it?

Chairman

No, this is the first time the joint committee has dealt with the Deputy's letter.

Deputy Christy O’Sullivan

Who should it contact?

Chairman

We have sent it to Mr. Maurice Coughlan, the principal officer in the franchise section of the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, which is responsible for election activities and polling stations. We should await his reply and then, depending on his response, we may be obliged to take it further. However, responsibility for recruiting staff for election activities rests with local returning officers, who appear to be independent at present.

Deputy Christy O’Sullivan

Who appoints the local returning officer and how is he or she appointed?

Chairman

We will verify that.

Deputy Christy O’Sullivan

Moreover, what are the criteria for being taken on as election staff? Is one obliged to have certain educational attainments?

Chairman

The Deputy seeks information on the criteria.

Deputy Christy O’Sullivan

People who have been doing this task for 20 years may be left off for no particular reason. Who does this and who makes the decision on it?

Chairman

We will send a further letter because we sent a letter to the Department earlier in the month. We will reiterate the points made in a letter from this committee. When we receive a reply we will discuss it further at a later meeting. We will not let this go.

The next item, No. 611 is a reply to observations on the report of the special group on public service numbers and expenditure programmes from the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. It refers to observations received from the Irish National Community & Voluntary Forum. I suggest that we note the correspondence.

The next item is an invitation to attend the conference of the National Economic and Social Forum at Croke Park on 4 November. We will note the correspondence.

The next item is a notice of publication of a report on Government policy on architecture. We will note the item.

Deputy Phil Hogan

Most Deputies and Senators have received correspondence on registration fees associated with the qualification procedure for architects. Perhaps we could write to the relevant umbrella organisation, the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland, and the Department to find out about the regime, the charge and when it came into effect. We can then decide whether we want to invite them to attend the meeting.

Chairman

Is that agreed? Agreed. The next item is notice of publication of the Private Residential Tenancies Board annual report.

Deputy Eamon Scanlon

I asked a question about people rent-buying properties, where one rents for three years and then buys the property. There is quite a lot of that going on at the moment. I asked whether people should register with the PRTB for these properties. They agreed to revert to us but I do not think they have. The report does not refer to it either. Can the committee send another letter to find out?

Chairman

We sought information on that and we will return to it. I remember Deputy Scanlon's question and I have not seen an answer to it.

Deputy Eamon Scanlon

It is affecting many people at the moment.

Chairman

People are buying houses that are for sale whereby one can pay rent for the first two or three years and this amount is ultimately set off against the purchase price. That scheme is happening in a number of counties in the private sector. We will get an answer to that.

The next item is research on the issues facing students in the private rental sector. It is a research paper from the Centre for Housing Research. We will note the correspondence.

The next item concerns access by SMEs for public contracts. It is a policy statement on the tendering procedures with a covering letter from the Construction Industry Federation. We must give this serious consideration. Many small and medium-sized contractors are not getting the opportunity to tender for public contracts. We have already discussed this in respect of one aspect of Government contracts but we must hold it over for a more detailed discussion. The issue affects most counties.

Deputy Eamon Scanlon

It is particularly relevant in the north west where contractors are competing against contractors from Northern Ireland where there is a much lower minimum wage. Small businesses are trying to compete against that. This must be taken on board.

Chairman

We will hold that over for a further discussion. Item No. 617 is a newsletter from Globe International. We will note that. The next item is a European water newsletter and we will note it. The next item is notice of a sustainable cities conference in France in May 2010. We will note that without agreeing to any travel arrangements for this committee. The next item concerns a policy research paper of the European Urban Knowledge Network. The next item is a report from the Ombudsman for Children entitled Report to the Oireachtas — A review of complaints on behalf of children with special needs regarding the provision of housing. We will note the report.

Item No. 622 is a list of issues for a debate during the passage of the Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2009 from Mr. Kevin Mooney, who is a citizen with a special interest in spatial planning. I suggest all members note this for a discussion when the legislation is passing through the Houses.

The next item, No. 623, is a letter regarding the decision by the Joint Committee on European Scrutiny on 13 October. We will note that. The next item is a circular from the Department of Foreign Affairs regarding a protocol for foreign travel and guidelines on how to approach costs, accommodation and transport abroad. We will note this.

The next item is climate change literature from the EPA which we shall note. The next item is a note of an informal meeting I had with Repak last week, and Deputy Hogan also met the organisation recently, regarding companies and producers who are self-compliant with the packaging directive. Repak is happy with the information received to date on packaging regulations to which it did not have access and which we obtained from local authorities. We will have a further discussion on this.

No. 627 is the 2008 annual report of An Bord Pleanála. The board will make a presentation on this next at our meeting at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, 28 October. The Dáil is not sitting next week and it is a bank holiday week so our meeting will be on Wednesday. It is a busy time and that was the time we were able to book a committee meeting room. In advance of An Bord Pleanála appearing before the committee I want to raise two issues on the annual report. I will ask the clerk to write to An Bord Pleanála in advance of the meeting asking for a reply to specific issues rather than putting questions to the representatives on the day. In the annual report the Comptroller and Auditor General states:

Without qualifying my opinion on the financial statements I draw attention to the Statement on the System of Internal Financial Control which discloses that An Bord Pleanála failed to conduct a review of the effectiveness of internal financial controls for the year and that it did not fully comply with the requirements of the Code of Practice for the Governance of State Bodies.

I had a look at the 2007 report and I saw the same comment was made in that report. An Bord Pleanála promised to comply fully in 2008 but it did not do so. It is making the same promises that it will do so in 2009. It is not good enough that a State body should have this said about it by the Comptroller and Auditor General. We want to ask the board to provide a written response in advance of the arrival here of its representatives on why this came about and to state that we find it unacceptable behaviour for a large body such as An Bord Pleanála to be non-compliant with the code of practice for the governance of State bodies. We know about the FÁS issues and while I do not suggest that anything has gone wrong in An Bord Pleanála, something could go wrong if it does not do its job properly.

Deputy Phil Hogan

I support the Chairman on this matter and it is right to bring An Bord Pleanála before the committee and alert it in advance. I want to draw attention to a statement issued recently by the chairman of An Bord Pleanála in which he had much to state about policy matters. I would like that statement to be circulated in advance of the meeting and to be considered in the context of the remit of An Bord Pleanála, which I always thought was established for the purpose of adjudicating on appeals on planning legislation and applications going through local authorities. Mr. O'Connor had much to state about a particular policy direction which I thought was the responsibility of the Minister and the Oireachtas. The statement was made at the time of the publication of the annual report.

Chairman

He was on television that evening. We will seek a copy of the press release or the transcript.

There is another issue I want to raise with An Bord Pleanála and of which I want to alert it in advance of the meeting rather than raising it for the first time at the meeting. The annual report explains that An Bord Pleanála has a system whereby when it is successful in court and is awarded costs, it pays its legal fees and then seeks to recover the costs from the third party against whom the award was made. There is a figure of €3,319,416 in the accounts which it has not yet collected. I examined the previous year's figures and some of this money dates back to 2005 and earlier. To me, it gives the impression that it is not following up the issue properly. This is a loss to the Irish taxpayer of €3.3 million that An Bord Pleanála is not collecting. The Oireachtas must provide an annual subvention to An Bord Pleanála and if it collected the money due to it, the subvention would not have to be as high. These awards were made in public court and I will ask for a detailed status report of the name of each person or company against whom the awards were made, how much has been paid to date and the balance outstanding. I will ask that in public session because these awards were made in open court so they cannot have complaints about sensitivity in terms of the names. These cases were generally dealt with in the High Court. We will ask for detailed information on that too.

Deputy James Bannon

An Bord Pleanála's annual report was due to be published.

Chairman

We have it. It was published before the weekend.

Deputy James Bannon

Have we invited——

Chairman

Yes. They will come in next Wednesday at 2 p.m. to meet the committee. We will meet on Wednesday because next Monday is a bank holiday.

The last items of correspondence received were circulars from the Department. Circular 909 is about statistical returns on derelict sites. The next item is A 2009, building regulations amendments, LG 1909, guideline for local authorities and the preparation of corporate plan, and LG 2009 local government casual vacancies. I am not sure what that is about. If members wish to look it up they are free to do so.

That concludes the correspondence. The next item on the agenda is the nitrates directive in practice. We will suspend for a moment while the visitors take their seats.

The joint committee suspended at 3.51 p.m. and resumed at 3.52 p.m.