The Cabinet meets at 10am today at Government Buildings with a lengthy agenda, including planning legislation, surrogacy guidelines and a new energy poverty fund.
There will also be an update on freedom of information ethics legislation.
Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien is to seek Cabinet approval for overhauling the planning system, following a lengthy review over the past year.
The stated aim is to ensure that the provisions of the Planning and Development Act are aligned with Government policy and are more accessible and streamlined from a legal perspective.
An Bord Pleanála will be renamed as An Coimisiún Pleanála and restructured to include a Chief Planning Commissioner and 15 Planning Commissioners. There will also be a Governing Executive.
The new planning entity will have to abide by new timelines for dealing with appeals.
Timelines will also be introduced to the various steps in the Judicial Review process, for the stated aim of ensuring a consistency of approach.
Residents’ associations will no longer be able to take a Judicial Review – instead it will have to be undertaken by an individual or individuals.
One provision still being developed is costs protection for Judicial Review cases.
The legislation further envisages increased capacity for local authorities to utilise Compulsory Purchase Orders and allows planning authorities to sanction works to enable residential use of a protected structure.
Meanwhile, the Ministers for Health, Justice and Children will bring a joint memo which asks their Cabinet colleagues to approve the drafting of several amendments to the Health (Assisted Human Reproduction) Bill 2022.
The objective is to provide for future international surrogacy arrangements, as well as the recognition of parentage in respect of certain past surrogacy arrangements, both domestic and international.
It is understood that the final drafts of the amendments will be brought back to Cabinet early in 2023 for final approval.
It follows the establishment of an Interdepartmental Group by Minister Donnelly, Minister O’Gorman and Minister Helen McEntee following the Joint Oireachtas Committee on International Surrogacy report in the summer, which made a total of 32 recommendations.
Minister for the Environment Eamon Ryan will seek Government approval for a new Energy Poverty Action Plan, which includes the allocation of a further €10 million to be made available in January, February and March of next year.
It is believed the money will be used to provide further safeguards for people at risk of energy debt, including, but not exclusively, Pay As You Go gas and electricity customers.
This will be in addition to the €1.2 billion Electricity Costs Emergency Scheme and the additional lump sum Fuel Allowance Payment of €400.
Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Michael McGrath will also provide further detail on planned Government expenditure in 2023.
It is understood that €650 million in funding is being provided for the recently launched Temporary Business Energy Support Scheme.
Of the €2 billion set aside for Ukraine-related costs, it is believed that €1.5 billion has now been earmarked with a further €500 million being held in reserve.
Minister McGrath is also seeking approval to publish the report of the Review of Ethics Legislation and update ministerial colleagues on legislative plans for next year.
He is also expected to tell Cabinet that the overriding goal should be for a robust Freedom Of Information request mechanism, while aiming to reduce the volume of requests, as information is more readily available to citizens.
At the same meeting, Minister for Social Protection Heather Humphreys will seek Cabinet approval to publish the first progress report of the Governments employment strategy, Pathways to Work, which was launched last year.
It is expected to show that Ireland has more people in employment than ever before – 2.55m – and the rate of employment is lower than pre-pandemic levels at 4.4%.
Ms Humphreys is expected to say that strong employment supports need to be kept in place so that they can be introduced at speed should a downturn be triggered by the war in Ukraine, inflation or other global headwinds.
This will be the final scheduled Cabinet meeting to be chaired by Micheál Martin as Taoiseach.
The next Cabinet meeting is slated to take place on Saturday at Aras an Uachterain after Leo Varadkar has assumed the role.
The final meeting between the Coalition leaders is due to be on Friday night, when details of the Cabinet reshuffle are due to be signed off.
Overhaul of planning system on lengthy Cabinet agenda
Source: Viral Trends Report
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