Joint Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 4 Feb 2015

Decisions on Public Petitions Received

Chairman

We will now continue as the Joint Sub-committee on Petitions to record the decisions of the committee. The committee has received a total of 128 petitions to date since the launch of the petitions system. The secretariat has been examining them to establish admissibility of the petitions and how best to progress the petitions for consideration by the joint sub-committee. One hundred and six of the petitions received have been brought before the committee on at least one occasion. There are four petitions to be discussed today. We have had a chance to deliberate on them in private session and now we will record our decisions in public session.

The first petition is No. P00031/12, An Bord Pleanála's view of planning precedent in local authorities, is from Mr. Pat Clarke. This petition emanates from the refusal of planning permission by a local authority and subsequent appeal to An Bord Pleanála. After the appeal, the petitioner lodged a complaint to An Bord Pleanála on the grounds that although the petitioner, the applicant for planning permission, included in his appeal many examples of precedents that demonstrated that planning permission had been granted by the local authority to other applicants in similar circumstances, that is, that the local authority had not applied the same policy planning requirements to other applications as it had to the petitioner, there was no reference to these instances quoted in the inspector's report and, consequently, these did not form part of the appeal. It is not within the remit of An Bord Pleanála to ensure consistency in documents provided to it from one case to another. I call Deputy Kirk to record the decision of the committee.

Deputy Seamus Kirk

It is recommended to forward a copy of the response received from the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government to the petitioner informing him that the joint committee, while mindful that it is not within its remit to seek the awarding or revoking of planning permission, proposes the following: to write to the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government recommending an amendment be made to the planning Acts which would compel all local authorities to supply all information in a consistent manner to An Bord Pleanála on every case put to the board; to write to the Department requesting that the Department forward to the joint committee a copy of the finalised development management guidelines for planning authorities; and following the review of the above and the responses thereto, to give consideration to drafting a committee report.

Chairman

Is that agreed? Agreed. The next petition is No. P00001/14, Legalise Cannabis Ireland, from Mr. David Kelly. We are now in receipt of four petitions on legalising cannabis, three of which have come before the committee. However, petition No. P00003/15 was only received on 29 January 2015. That will be brought before the committee in the near future. The petition being considered today calls for a referendum on the issue of legalising cannabis for medical and recreational use. This petition was considered by the committee on 12 March 2014. During its consideration of the petition, the committee agreed that while it had agreed to close petition No. P00029/13 without further examination, as a preliminary step because the issue merited further debate, it was agreed to refer this petition to the Joint Committee on Health and Children and the Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality for consideration.

As members will recall, the committee deliberated on a similar petition on legalising cannabis, petition No. P00029/13, at its meeting on 11 December 2013. In its consideration of that petition, the committee noted that the issue had been debated in the Houses of the Oireachtas on foot of a Private Members' motion put forward by former Deputy Luke 'Ming' Flanagan in November 2013 and the motion had been defeated. The committee further noted that former Deputy Luke 'Ming' Flanagan had tabled a Private Members' Bill before the Houses of the Oireachtas to legalise cannabis.

After further deliberation on 7 May 2014 on petition No. P00009/14 from Mr. Aaron Davey, it was also decided to forward the petition to the Joint Committee on Health and Children and to the Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality and ask whether they would consider examining this issue as part of their work programme, and both committees decided against this. The joint sub-committee further agreed at the meeting to close the petition. Both committees have reported back. They will not be including the issues raised in their work programme.

In summary, we have had the debates put forward by former Deputy Luke 'Ming' Flanagan. It is the view of this committee that these matters have been debated fully in these Houses and there has been a vote. The Dáil divided, with 112 in support of the Government amendment and eight against. On a Private Members' motion, one votes on the Government amendment. Therefore, 112 voted against the proposition put forward by former Deputy Luke 'Ming' Flanagan and eight voted for his proposition.

On 11 July, the Minister of State at the Department of Health with responsibility for primary care signed regulations to enable authorised cannabis-based medicinal products to be legally prescribed by medical practitioners. Essentially, the committee agreed to close the petition and write to the petitioners informing them of those facts. That is the end of our deliberation on that matter. Is that agreed? Agreed.

Petition No. P00039/14, acknowledgements and responses by Departments to correspondence, from Mr. Norman Wilson, is one of two petitions submitted by the petitioner. Mr. Wilson is an Irish citizen living in Australia. He is married to an Australian and they have a child together. Mr. Wilson is annoyed that during a recent trip home to Ireland to visit his family, his wife was informed by a member of staff at passport control that she could not go through the same passport control desk as her husband and EU nationals and that she would need to enter the queue for non-nationals. To cut to the chase, he was not happy with the length of time that he had to wait for a response from the Department. He proposed that in future there should be acknowledgements within 24 hours and an answer in full within one month. I invite Senator Ó Clochartaigh to record our decision.

Senator Trevor Ó Clochartaigh

It is that the committee prepare a report that places on the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, under its public service reform remit, the requirement to issue a standard for civil and public service and related bodies under the aegis of Departments for dealing with all correspondence, whether by hard copy, letter, e-mail, SMS, voicemail or any other electronic means. Matters which members can include in the report are as follows. All correspondence should be responded to in the following timeframe. All correspondence should be acknowledged no later than the close of business the next working day after receipt. A substantive response should issue within 15 working days of the correspondence being received. If stakeholders become aware that there could be an issue with issuing a substantive response within the specified 15-day deadline, an interim response must issue within the 15-day deadline specified giving the correspondent a timeframe for the substantive response. The timeframes suggested are only a draft and are open to change or suggestion by the members.

Chairman

We are looking for the response, as presented, and the report will be drafted. Is that agreed? Agreed. The final petition is No. P00002/15, non-compliant installations of water meter boxes in vehicle access locations by Irish Water, from Mr. Con O'Leary. The petition claims that the companies installing water meter boxes on behalf of Irish Water are installing grade C boxes in the areas that are being accessed by vehicles whereas they should be using Grade B boxes. He claims that this is not in compliance with Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government circular BC 06/2009 which states that in planning permission, there is clearly a reference to class B standard for covers-frames to services and footpaths and, likewise, BS 5834 Part 2 standard states that light grade C surface boxes are for use in situations not intended for use by motor vehicles. The committee has agreed that we will write to the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government asking he provide proof that the grade of the meter boxes fitted to date in areas where there is vehicle traffic are of the grade B specification referred to by the petition.

The joint committee adjourned at 5 p.m. until 4 p.m. on Wednesday, 11 February 2015.