Planning bill does not comply with international convention, senator tells junior Housing Minister

Senator Alice Mary Higgins (pictured) took umbrage with Mr Dillon’s insistence that the Bill, which Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien had previously said he wished to see enacted before the summer “come hell or high water”, “is compliant with the Aarhus Convention”. File photo: Gareth Chaney/Collins

The Government has been criticised for claiming repeatedly under Dáil privilege that its new Planning Bill is compliant with an international convention.

The 700-page Planning and Development Bill, which was guillotined through the Dáil last month, is currently being debated at committee stage in the Seanad, with the Government planning to vote on it for a final time in September.