Under any other business, Deputy Buckley wishes to raise the issue of authorised and unauthorised developments on waterways in Ireland.
Business of Joint Committee (Resumed)
I thank the Chair. The responses back are non-existent responses on this matter. We are still waiting on a number of county councils to respond.
Yes. The recommendation is that the committee issues a further reminder to the ten local authorities that have not responded to the committee's initial request.
The interesting thing-----
Sorry, there are eight local authorities that have not responded.
-----I see from some of the responses is that they are all referring to the Planning and Development Act 2000 within the county councils. At a meeting of the housing committee on Tuesday, 30 January 2024, I asked Mr. Éanna Rowe from Waterways Ireland whether it is the responsibility of Waterways Ireland or the county council to address planning issues. His response more or less indicated that planning is the responsibility of the county council. When I further questioned Mr. Rowe, I said:
I wish to ask Mr. Rowe about the unauthorised development on Waterways Ireland land that he mentioned earlier. He stated that it is an issue for planning and for the council. However, if the land, which was taken illegally as it is illegal to take land without planning permission, is land belonging to Waterway Ireland, then it is Waterways Ireland's issue, not the council's issue.
Mr. Rowe responded:
The point I was making is that planning and development are matters for the local authorities under the Planning Acts. Encroachments or alleged encroachments on Waterways Ireland property, are a matter for Waterways Ireland.
He clarified that it is happening. From what I am seeing from these responses - this is why I asked about the rest of the council responses - the majority of the councils are coming back and saying that it is under the Planning Acts. It cannot be under the Planning Acts if planning was never applied for. Waterways Ireland has already acknowledged the possibilities of authorised and unauthorised developments on Waterways Ireland's property. I am anxious to see what the rest of the responses will be from those councils because I think we are going to end up being caught between a rock and a hard place. There is going to be one entity saying it is a planning issue, but how can it be a planning issue when planning was never applied for? It is on the property of a separate entity, which is Waterways Ireland, and therefore it is an issue for Waterways Ireland and the council will probably have nothing to do with it. Where are we going to have to go to get responses? This is going on and on, I am getting worried that there is going to be a massive void here and we are not going to get answers. That is why I wished to flag it to see if we can put urgency on the county councils to come back to the committee and discuss it. Is it the councils the Chairperson must bring in or is it Waterways Ireland? That is what I wanted to raise.
I thank the Deputy. Eight local authorities have yet to get back to the committee. It is a disgrace after this length of time, especially in light of all the work the staff have done, for example in reminding the councils that this information is being sought. Is there a national body for county councils? Can we bring it in? Perhaps it is a matter for the County and City Management Association. We can maybe pull it in here. We will not get all the local authorities before the committee. We can also bring in Waterways Ireland. If these developments are taking place on its land or its water - whatever it is - there must be some system. If they have not looked for planning, how are they being allowed to build these marinas? That creates a different barrier, as we have discussed before. Who is charging who for the boats being moored in all these areas?
Where is the revenue going?
The revenue is not going to the State. We found that out at the early stage of this. Someone needs to start answering. Maybe we can ask Waterways Ireland and the CCMA to come in and give their take on the local authority side of this.
I thank the Chair.
Maybe the Department can come before the committee. There is no harm in asking the Department to come in. As was stated, there is another reminder going out to the remaining eight local authorities. It is a scandal that they have bypassed us for so long at this stage. Many councils got back to us straight away with one- or two-page replies and fair play to them.
Are there any other issues? No. Before we conclude, I thank Leo Bollins who stepped in for these meetings on behalf of Martha Dowling and Alex Alino. I also thank Ciarán McConway and Barbara Hughes and anybody else who is involved with this committee for all the work they do on our behalf. It is unbelievable. I wish the public could see the amount of work that goes on. I thank all the staff.
The joint committee adjourned at 3.19 p.m. until 1.30 p.m. on Thursday, 7 March 2024.