Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 3 March 2022
116. Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if his attention has been drawn to communications sent by the Office of the Planning Regulator, OPR, to various local authorities regarding the conduct of their development plans; if clarification will be provided of the role of the office in this regard; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12120/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraI live only 15 minutes away from the areas Deputy O'Connor spoke about, so the Minister of State is more than welcome to call to me as well when he comes to east Cork.
My question relates to the role of the OPR. The Minister will be familiar with the communication sent by its chief executive to local authorities in the past few weeks on the conduct of their development plans. Will he clarify the office's role in the development of those plans?
Since the establishment of the OPR in April 2019 and pursuant to section 31AM(1) of the Planning and Development Act 2000, as inserted by the Planning and Development (Amendment) Act 2018, the office has responsibility for the evaluation of the making or varying of development plans. This is an independent function of the office, which also has a statutory function to issue advice, where relevant, to the Minister or Minister of State in respect of matters relating to the making or varying of development plans.
In regard to the statutory process set out for the development plan review process in the legislation, and pursuant to sections 11(2), 12(1)(a), 12(5)(aa) and 12(7)(a) in particular, the planning authority is obliged to notify the OPR of the various stages of the development plan review process. Any observations and recommendations of the OPR that are made to the planning authority at each stage of the development plan review process are copied to the Minister in accordance with section 31AM(3)(b).
The reason I ask this question is that Cork County Council is one of the many local authorities that have received quite substantial communications from the OPR in recent weeks. I am looking for clarification in this regard. The Minister of State said the office's responsibility is to issue advice to the Minister and so on. The report that was issued by the OPR in the case of Cork County Council included a number of recommendations, with the chief executive alleging there are clear breaches of the relevant legislative provisions of the national and regional policy framework and-or the policy of Government as set out in ministerial guidelines under section 28 of the Act. He went on to say there is a requirement to implement the recommendations he is advising. In the context of the OPR's obligation to issue advice to and inform the Minister, the chief executive, in his communication, has identified clear breaches and highlighted the requirement to implement those recommendations. Will the Minister of State clarify whether those recommendations are advisory or if there is a requirement to implement them?
In the first instance, the role of the OPR is to ensure our shared vision, as set out in the national planning framework, NPF, our regional guidelines and the county development plans, runs right through in a consistent manner and is delivering on Government policy. Subject to a recommendation by the Mahon tribunal, the office was established to ensure Government policy is, in fact, running through to local authorities. It is not long - 2008, in fact - since we had enough zoned land in the country to accommodate an extra 10 million people. No one could predict where the infrastructure would land and the State does not have a bottomless pit of money. We have evolved now to a situation where we have a plan-led system to deliver for all our citizens. Further to the draft plan by Cork County Council, which I know from the correspondence that the regulator is impressed with, a number of recommendations were put and delivered on in terms of flood risk, development guidelines and mapping. We are happy with the substantive response to them.
I note what the Minister of State said in regard to compliance with some of the recommendations, particularly in the case of the flood maps. There is a continuation of the problem in Cork in regard to the joint retail strategy between city and county. Clearly, the two local authorities are at odds in this regard. Cork County Council was successful in its case for continuing with the proposals for its retail strategy for east Cork. That is subject to another appeal to a higher court but the fact is that a court has dealt with the retail strategy issue. The Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, met recently with the chief executives and advised them of the overall strategy. I ask the Minister of State to write to the local authorities and chief executives specifically outlining the situation in regard to serviceable lands and their inclusion or exclusion from the plans.
Will he indicate whether there will be a review of the NPF in line with the census in a couple of years' time? That would be a worthwhile exercise.
I cannot speak on matters that are sub judice or are before the courts. I must be very careful in that regard. The legislation underpinning our role as Ministers and the role of the 31 local authorities is very clear and we are following what is prescribed. It is up to the courts to interpret that subsequently.
In regard to our shared vision of the relevant plans that flow through Government, something that is very clear from all our engagement with local authorities is that if land is serviced and has infrastructure, the last thing we want to see is it being dezoned. Such lands have the potential to deliver housing and are located in the right places. Section 10 of the draft development plan guidelines clearly sets out for local authorities the trajectory in which we want to see them going. I expect them to follow suit in that regard.
There will be a planned review of the NPF to take into account the updated information from the census. There is huge capacity in the framework. One of the things that often amazes me is that all but nine local authorities need to increase their housing supply targets by more than 100%. Following the Covid crisis, there is plenty of opportunity and scope in the NPF to hive out that capacity.
