New law will allow developers to apply for three-year extension on planning permissions due to lapse
Housing Minister James Browne will seek approval for the measure, which will allow developers with two years left on their permissions to apply for the extension.
The legislation is a bid to activate developments such as large-scale apartment complexes. Applications for extensions will have to be made within six months of the legislation commencing.
The legislation will also say that development must then commence within 18 months of enactment of the law.
The ability to extend planning permission is just one of two measures included in the bill before the Cabinet. The second will see those holding planning permission which is caught up in a judicial review allowed to apply for a retrospective suspension of the time their permission was held up.
Currently, if planning permission is subject to a judicial review, the clock is not paused while the process is worked through. Under proposals going to cabinet, planning permission holders can recoup the time lost while the permission was held up. If approved, it is expected the legislation will be completed before the Dáil summer recess.
Meanwhile, Tánaiste Simon Harris will also bring the long-awaited Occupied Territories Bill to the Cabinet.
Mr Harris will ask ministers to approve the drafting of the general scheme of the bill, which will prohibit the importation of goods from illegal settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. It is hoped that the legislation will be ready for committee scrutiny in June.
Opposition parties have been critical of the Government for the pace at which the bill is being brought through the Oireachtas and have accused it of watering the bill down.
While Mr Harris will tell his cabinet colleagues that Ireland does minimal trade with the Occupied Territories, the Government has been resolute in wanting to use every means available to end the war in the Middle East.
He will inform cabinet colleagues that the Government will look to adopt a twin-track approach to do this. This includes building support at EU level to ensure compliance with international law, as well as progressing legislation in Ireland.
The Tánaiste will also ask ministers to approve the participation of Irish soldiers in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) for a further 12 months.
Mental Health Minister Mary Butler and Health Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill will ask Cabinet to approve the committee-stage amendments of the Mental Health Bill.
The aim of the bill is to revise and improve the experience of people involuntarily admitted to an acute mental health setting, and improve safeguards for those people. It will also introduce a new approach to consent to treatment.
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