O’Brien threatens to limit planning votes due to ‘filibustering’
HOUSING Minister Darragh O’Brien is threatening to use a legislative guillotine to force through controversial planning reform.
A row between Mr O’Brien and the Opposition over the pace at which the mammoth legislation is progressing through the Oireachtas Housing Committee has led to an entrenched stand-off.
The 700-page Planning and Development Bill proposes to overhaul the State’s planning code, which the Government says is essential for increasing housing delivery.
Mr O’Brien told a meeting of Fianna Fáil TDs and senators that there are almost 1,500 amendments to the Bill, but only 600 or 700 of these
‘Need to speed up home-building’
are ‘genuine amendments’, with the remainder being minor or duplicates.
He has also accused members of the committee of not turning up ‘to work on a vital piece of legislation’. It comes as Sinn Féin withdrew their TD Thomas Gould from the committee last week in protest at its scheduling, which has been sitting for between 12-18 hours each week for the last four weeks.
In contrast, most other committees meet for just three hours weekly.
The Government had proposed to increase the sitting time due to increased availability of committee rooms and staff in two weeks’ time, but this was rejected by the Opposition.
Mr Gould’s absence means that every time a vote is called, there is a 10-minute interval to allow members not present in the committee room to attend the vote.
When all members are present there is just a oneminute interval. Sinn Féin have been accused of filibustering by calling an excessive amount of votes to delay proceedings – an allegation rejected by the party’s housing spokesman Eoin Ó Broin.
On Wednesday, Mr O’Brien wrote to the chair of the committee, Green TD Steven Matthews, accusing unnamed members of the Opposition of not turning up ‘to work on a vital piece of legislation’.
He wrote: ‘It is all too clear from this action that our housing crisis exists only when it suits Opposition narrative and not when there are solutions on the table... The Opposition cannot have it both ways.
‘This deliberate absenteeism would ultimately delay the reforms we need to speed up home-building and key infrastructure.’
On Wednesday night, Mr O’Brien suggested the guillotine could be implemented at a private Fianna Fáil parliamentary party meeting.
The use of the guillotine by this Government, which places a time limit on Bill debates in the Dáil or Seanad, has previously been criticised by the Ceann Comhairle. Mr O’Brien told his party colleagues that Sinn Féin were strategically calling votes in a bid to filibuster the Bill.
Social Democrats housing spokesman Cian O’Callaghan said: ‘The Minister for Housing accusing me of absenteeism and not turning up for work is outrageous, I’ve been at the entire housing committee, and the Planning Bill when he hasn’t been at most of the meetings – if he did, things would move faster,’ he said. A minister must be present in the committee room when members are discussing the legislation.
Niall Collins, Junior Minister at the Department of Further and Higher Education, has had to fill in for Mr O’Brien on one occasion.
‘The process would be quicker if we had ministers attending who knew what they were talking about,’ Mr O’Callaghan added. In his letter, Mr O’Brien highlighted that there are time-sensitive issues around the Bill, such as the reform of An Bord Pleanála, an exemption process for social housing and measures relating to judicial reviews. Committee chair Mr Matthews told the Irish Daily Mail he did not believe workloads were too onerous.