Minister For Housing Questioned Over Planning Bill Lobbying

Sinn Féin has called on the Minister for Housing, Darragh O'Brien, to "come clean" on developer lobbying on the Planning Bill.

The call was made as the Ditch website revealed legal advice from the Attorney General to the Minister that appears to contradict information provided by the Minister to the Housing Committee on the planning bill on February 21st.

SF's spokesperson on Housing, Eoin Ó Broin TD, said: "Darragh O'Brien tabled a last-minute controversial amendment to his already controversial Planning Bill in February that would have prohibited Local Authorities or An Bord Pleanála from refusing to grant permission for a residential development on grounds that a government set housing target for the location where the planning permission was situated had already been met.

"During Select Committee on February 21st, I questioned Minister O'Brien about amendment 605 to Section 83 of the Bill. It is an extraordinary and very dramatic intervention into our planning system.


"When asked if the amendment was based on any existing planning applications rejected on such grounds, the Minister indicated that this was not the case. When asked whether any industry body had lobbied him specifically for this amendment, the Minister said no.

"However today the Ditch website has revealed legal advice from the Attorney General to the Minister from February, which casts doubt on the Minister's responses in committee.

"The letter from Rossa Fanning to Darragh O'Brien makes clear that the amendment is based on a single decision by Wicklow County Council regarding a planning application by Cairn for 98 units in Greystones.

"The Attorney General's letter suggests that the wording of the amendment, based on the wording contained in the decision by Wicklow County Council, would not be appropriate for other Local Authorities and may need further amendment.

"The Ditch also revealed a series of meetings between Cairn and Minister O'Brien's political advisor in the period after Wicklow County Council refused the planning application and prior to the tabling of the amendment.

"Minister O'Brien must come clean on this controversial amendment. Did Cairn Homes lobby specifically for this change to the Bill? If so, why did the Minister not inform the Committee about this.

"All Committee members have received large volumes of proposed amendments from a wide range of industry, professional, environmental and community-based organisations. This is normal practice. However, where amendments are the result of direct lobbying, the public has a right to know who asked for such changes and why.

"When the Committee comes to the relevant section of the Bill in the coming days the Minister should use the opportunity to clarify the matter and if necessary correct the record of the Committee."