logo
Paul Reid to head up new planning body replacing An Bord Pleanála

Paul Reid to head up new planning body replacing An Bord Pleanála

It is expected that his name will be brought to cabinet to be appointed as chair of An Coimisiún Pleanála.
Mr Reid, who took over as head of the HSE in 2019, became a household name during the Covid-19 pandemic.
He later stepped down from the position in 2022 to spend more time with his family and the belief that the HSE was 'entering a new phase and that the appointment of a new leader was now timely".
The Housing Minister, James Browne, will bring a memo to cabinet tomorrow to establish the new body to replace An Bord Pleanála, in a move to reset the organisation and its culture.
This is part of the Planning and Development Act which is designed to reform how planning works in Ireland.
The other main part of the legislation that will bring change to An Bord Pleanála is the introduction of mandatory statutory timelines for its decisions.
Those timelines range from 18 to 24 weeks and there will be penalties for any failure to comply.
This part of the Act is not due to be commenced at the same time as the name change, though it is expected to be in place by the end of 2025.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

US ends case against doctor over alleged Covid vaccine scheme
US ends case against doctor over alleged Covid vaccine scheme

RTÉ News​

time8 hours ago

  • RTÉ News​

US ends case against doctor over alleged Covid vaccine scheme

US Attorney General Pam Bondi has said she had ordered charges to be dropped against a doctor accused of destroying Covid-19 jabs and issuing fake vaccination certificates. The abrupt halt to proceedings comes just days after the trial commenced, and is the latest boost to the vaccine-sceptic movement from President Donald Trump's administration. Michael Kirk Moore, a plastic surgeon in the western state of Utah, was charged by the Department of Justice in 2023 alongside his clinic and three others for "running a scheme" to defraud the government. He was accused of destroying or disposing of over $28,000 worth of government-provided Covid vaccines and handing out at least 1,937 false vaccine record cards in exchange for payment. Dr Moore, who faced decades behind bars, was also accused of administering a saline solution to children - at the behest of their parents - so that they would think they had been vaccinated against Covid. His trial began this week at a federal court in Salt Lake City. But on Tuesday, Republican politician Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of Mr Trump's most vocal hard-right supporters, said she had written to Ms Bondi calling for charges against Dr Moore to be dropped. "Dr Moore gave his patients a choice when the federal government refused to do so. He did not deserve the years in prison he was facing. It ends today," Ms Bondi wrote on X yesterday. Ms Bondi's decision also notably comes as she faces fire from right-wing activists over her handling of a probe into the late financier Jeffrey Epstein. The Covid-19 pandemic sparked fierce political division in the US between those who supported lockdowns and vaccination drives, and those who considered the measures as restrictions on freedom. Mr Trump, himself vaccinated against Covid-19, has appointed as his Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr., who has initiated an overhaul of US vaccine policy. Mr Kennedy said Dr Moore "deserves a medal for his courage and commitment to healing," in an X post in April. At the end of May, Mr Kennedy announced that federal authorities would no longer recommend Covid-19 jabs for children and pregnant women, prompting accusations from medical groups that he was taking away parents' ability to opt for vaccinations. Mr Kennedy has been accused of spreading vaccine misinformation, including about the measles vaccine, even as the US grapples with its worst measles epidemic in 30 years.

Is Ireland ready for drab Soviet-style apartment blocks?
Is Ireland ready for drab Soviet-style apartment blocks?

Irish Times

time11 hours ago

  • Irish Times

Is Ireland ready for drab Soviet-style apartment blocks?

In the postwar years, a rapidly urbanising Soviet Union embarked on a mass construction programme. It built standardised, mass-produced, cheap, drab blocks of apartments intended as temporary for 20-25 years. Typically floor areas were just 30-40sq m (equivalent to three standard parking spaces). Led by Nikita Khrushchev, they became known as Khrushchyovkas. This week, Minister for Housing James Browne issued new apartment standards that resurrect the old Khrushchyovkas as the urban housing ambition for 21st century Ireland. It is now possible to build entire blocks of 32sq m studio bedsits with no limit on the number of residents sharing a corridor or lift. Up to half of these homes may have no private amenity space. On urban sites, communal outdoor space is negotiable, and on larger schemes developers can design out playgrounds and childcare facilities . Local authorities may no longer require space to be set aside for laundry, clothes-drying, gyms, community or cultural use. There is no transparency about where these standards originated, and they came into force immediately without public consultation, pre-legislative scrutiny or a regulatory impact assessment. Almost a Trumpian executive order, the suddenness and absence of transition arrangements have brought uncertainty into the entire sector, risking delays, additional costs and, inevitably, legal action. It seems in direct defiance of the Department of Finance's recent warning that 'in order to attract private capital, policy certainty is key'. This uncertainty is more likely to shake confidence than to 'get apartment building moving'. A new Planning Bill – as yet unseen – is to be rushed through, putting in doubt current planning applications, local authority development plans, statutory housing needs and demand assessments, and indeed forecasts for infrastructure capacity. READ MORE So are these changes justified? The Minister claims savings of a 'an average of €50k and up to €100k cost reduction per unit', although no calculations are provided. His own department's most recent figures for urban apartment development indicate hard construction costs of almost €180,000 (incl VAT) to build a 37q m one-person studio. On this basis, cutting 5sq m from the structure would only save about €3,500 (incl VAT) (€615/m2 structure costs + VAT = €698x 5 = €3,490 structure costs) given no reduction in other hard costs (kitchen, bathroom, windows, doors, heating, plumbing, electrics, etc). In all likelihood any potential savings would be wiped out within months on redesign, tender inflation of 3 per cent annually and finance. [ Government measures designed to drive apartment building are 'not as effective in practice as envisaged' Opens in new window ] The Minister may believe that squeezing more smaller apartments into the same building will result in lower unit costs. Evidently, a studio for one person will be a cheaper unit than an apartment for two, three or more. Without the evidence, this seems more spin than worked solution. We might hope that developers and investors won't buy into these lower standards. Experience tells us otherwise. When lower standards for build-to-rent apartments and co-living were introduced, it wiped out the 'viability' of urban build-to-sell which was marginally less profitable. Consequently, investment funds now control more than 17,000 new rental apartments, according to figures reported in the Business Post, while only 943 were sold in Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway cities in the last six years, CSO figures show. In response to these changes, many investors will pause to assess whether the uncertainty, disruption and legal risks are worth it. So how might they jump? Let's imagine an apartment block of 100 units with permission for 50 two-bedroom apartments, 25 one-bedroom and 25 studios. Using typical rents for new-build apartments in Dublin, our 100-unit scheme could generate a rent roll of €275,000 per month (gross). However, replacing it with 178 small studios could bring in €370,000, a 35 per cent increase. This is certainly enough to send many back to the drawing board. But regardless of how – or when – they jump, this week's announcement gifted all residential landowners a new profit (on paper) from increased development potential. Land is valued on the 'residual' of the end value less the development costs. When the future rent roll increases, it brings up the current land value. This windfall is now booked on the balance sheets and baked in, eventually to be paid in higher rents and mortgages – in one stroke both worsening the 'viability' of larger apartments, and widening the affordability gap. So how many people could be housed in these newly configured buildings? Taking, our example above, a permitted block of 100 apartments can now squeeze in 178 studios. Good news for the 'supply target' with a 78 per cent increase in units on the site. Unfortunately, not so good for anything else. Small units are very inefficient: a block of 178 studios can only legally accommodate 178 people, whereas the same space laid out as 100 apartments can house 275. In fact, the larger 2016 Dublin City Council standards could comfortably fit more than 300 people in a mix of units -all with decent, flexible living conditions, suited to couples, families and sharers. So, in our example, for the same development cost and the same drain on limited construction resources, Browne has incentivised 78 per cent more units, but housed 41 per cent fewer people. Bizarrely, his initiative may give us poorer quality homes while taking longer and costing more. Browne says that he is 'prepared to take risks'. Perhaps consider these risks – of regulatory capture; of rejecting evidence-based plans and democratic processes; of further inflating land values; of incentivising a glut of over-priced substandard homes; of ignoring the 50 per cent of households with children; of believing that squeezing out a washing machine or space for a pram will tip the balance of international financial markets in Ireland's favour. Ireland's speculative housing system has legacies of boom and bust, planning irregularities, ghost estates, low standards, over-inflated values, market crashes and deep recessions that are both recent and painful. We are still paying the price for the last time developers were left to decide what to build, where, and at what quality and cost. In this complex ecosystem even seemingly minor decisions are not without major consequence. If his new Housing Minister doesn't see the risks, Taoiseach Micheál Martin surely should. Orla Hegarty is an assistant professor at the School of Architecture, Planning and Environmental Policy, UCD

Procurement spending at HSE triples to over €4bn
Procurement spending at HSE triples to over €4bn

Extra.ie​

timea day ago

  • Extra.ie​

Procurement spending at HSE triples to over €4bn

The HSE's spend on public procurement has tripled in the past four years to exceed an 'alarming' €4billion, new figures show. Figures provided to Fianna Fáil TD Albert Dolan reveal that spending on procurement in the health system has 'surged' from €1.29billion in 2020 to €4.19billion in 2024. Mr Dolan told that, in the absence of the much-delayed financial management system in the health service, a system 'to ensure accountability and value for money are simply not in place'. He expressed concern that despite the 'dramatic growth' in procurement spending since 2020, the agency could not 'provide basic data on how these funds were managed'. The HSE's spend on public procurement has tripled in the past four years to exceed an 'alarming' €4billion, new figures show. Pic: Eamonn Farrell/Photocall Ireland Mr Dolan described the lack of a financial management system in the HSE as 'extraordinary'. 'The figures speak for themselves,' he said. 'We have seen procurement spending more than triple in just five years. Yet the HSE is unable to provide fundamental information about whether this spending is staying within contract limits. It is extraordinary that at a time when public money is being committed at this scale, the systems to ensure accountability and value for money are simply not in place.' The HSE is expected to introduce an 'integrated financial management system to oversee its procurement. Mr Dolan called on Health Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill and the HSE leadership to 'immediately publish a timeline for the delivery of the system and to commit to producing annual reports on procurement compliance once the system is live. 'The public is entitled to know where billions in taxpayer funds are going and whether that money is being spent efficiently and effectively,' he said. Jennifer Carroll MacNeill. Pic: Gareth Chaney/Collins Photos 'This is not about individual contracts or suppliers. It's about whether we have the capacity as a State to manage public money responsibly at a time of unprecedented demand on health services.' Mr Dolan's comments come following a litany of spending scandals within the Government – including the controversial National Children's Hospital, which will exceed €2billion in cost and won't receive patients until June 2026. More recently, the health service has been battling a scandal over 'insourcing' activity in certain hospitals. Insourcing involves public hospitals engaging external companies to deliver services, often outside of normal working hours and using HSE-owned facilities. In many cases, the external providers may employ HSE staff to deliver the work, typically at premium rates. The work is funded through the National Treatment Purchase Fund – an initiative established to tackle waiting lists in public hospitals. The HSE commissioned an audit of all insourcing activity after allegations of consultants abusing the NTPF emerged. It found that almost €100million was paid out to roughly 950 companies under the NTPF over a 27-month period. According to senior members of the health service, 50 firms make up 'the vast majority of the spend'.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store