Report Paul Murphy
A unanimous call by Meath county councillors to the Minister for Housing to scrap Section 5 planning exemptions for proposed international protection centre has been made at a meeting of the council. The section of the planning law allowed for the bypassing of normal planning procedures. There have been a number of applications for exemption in the county. Independent Cllr Noel French introduced a notice of motion at the council meeting last Monday calling on the Minister to remove Section 5 and to make sure that applicants for international protection go through the normal planning procedures.
Speaking at the council meeting he said that the current system undermined the planning process, the reputation of public representatives and the values of fairness and equality. The councillor said there was anger, frustration and worry being caused by these applications for
exemptions. In many cases the applications were for industrial buildings that were not suitable for human habitation. “Local towns and villages are left for weeks frustrated and uncertain as to what is happening in their community”, he said.
Fianna Fail Cllr Sean Drew said that there had been a review of planning exemptions generally in which he had made a submission and added that the Section 5 provision “overrides the zoning and planning restrictions that elected representatives had put into the county development plan”.
Fine Gael Cllr Alan Tobin said that a recent exemption had been given for a premises that was two kms from the nearest shop, over four kms from a school and which had no play area or footpaths to it.
In a separate motion Aontu Cllr Emer Toibin called on the council to write to the Minister for Justice to withdraw all planning exemptions currently in place for properties to accommodate international protection applicants and that they be subject to the standard planning process.
Fine Gael Cllr Yemi Adenuga said that mistrust and division was being created by planning exemptions that allowed buildings to be suddenly repurposed without consultation. She queried why accommodation for vulnerable families was being treated with lower standards than a garden shed.
Aontu Cllr Dave Boyne said that planning exemptions should be revoked until they went through the normal planning process.
Fine Gael Cllr Gerry O’Connor said that if the councillors called for all existing planning exemptions to be withdrawn they would be “throwing the baby out with the bath water”. He said planning exemptions should be “reviewed” rather than “withdrawn. His suggestion was agreed by the councillors.
