Bills
1,078 bills tracked. What do the stages mean?
Planning and Development Regulations (Amendment) (Solar Energy for Schools and Community Buildings) Bill 2022
14 Nov 2024 First Stage Lapsed Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire
- Amends Planning and Development Regulations 2001 to exempt solar panel installation on schools and community buildings from requiring planning permission.
- Defines 'school' and 'community building' in the regulations to determine which structures qualify for the solar panel exemption.
- Removes administrative barrier to renewable energy adoption by eliminating planning permission requirement for solar installations on specified public buildings.
Planning and Development (Ministerial Guidelines) Bill 2022
14 Nov 2024 First Stage Lapsed Róisín Shortall
- Removes obligation for planning authorities, regional assemblies, and An Bord Pleanála to comply with Minister's section 28 planning guidelines.
- Deletes provision allowing guidelines to contain Specific Planning Policy Requirements that bodies must follow in performing functions.
- Restores local authority power to draft development plans reflecting their own council areas' needs independent of mandatory ministerial guidelines.
Dereliction and Building Regeneration Bill 2022
14 Nov 2024 Second Stage Lapsed Steven Matthews
- Expands derelict building definition to include boarded-up, damaged, or disconnected properties; requires online register publication and modern notice methods.
- Establishes 'Town Centre First' fast-track planning and building approval process for converting vacant upper floors and commercial spaces to residential use.
- Creates national Town Centre First Partnership office to guide local authorities on refurbishment of existing buildings with tailored technical guidance on fire safety and access.
Short-term Lettings Enforcement Bill 2022
14 Nov 2024 Second Stage Lapsed Eoin Ó Broin
- Makes it illegal for estate agents and online platforms to advertise short-term lettings in rent pressure zones that don't comply with 2019 planning exemption regulations.
- Empowers Housing Minister to issue spot fines against non-compliant advertisers, agents, and online platforms offering illegal short-term lettings.
- Adds new enforcement offence to Planning and Development Act 2000 targeting properties advertised for short-term rent without proper planning compliance.
Local Government and Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (Carrigaline Rent Pressure Zone) Bill 2022
14 Nov 2024 Second Stage Lapsed Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire
- Designates entire Carrigaline local electoral area as a rent pressure zone under the Local Government Act 2019.
- Requires Minister to prescribe full local electoral area as rent pressure zone if substantial portion already qualifies and conditions are met.
- Amends Residential Tenancies Act 2004 to create statutory obligation for Minister to extend rent pressure zone coverage area-wide.
Commission of Investigation (Nursing Homes) Bill 2022
14 Nov 2024 First Stage Lapsed Catherine Connolly
- Requires Government to establish a Commission of Investigation within two months to conduct public inquiry into how nursing homes managed Covid-19 risks during specified period.
- Commission must investigate and report on management of Covid-19 risks in nursing homes, including staffing, infection control, testing, and factors listed in the Schedule.
- Terms of reference must be set within two months; Schedule lists non-exhaustive factors for investigation, allowing Commission to examine additional relevant matters.
Personal Protective Equipment (Covid-19) Bill 2022
14 Nov 2024 First Stage Lapsed Paul Murphy
- Amends Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 to require employers provide FFP2-grade masks or higher to employees where Covid-19 risks cannot be controlled by other means.
- Explicitly applies requirement to education, childcare, and healthcare workers in schools, colleges, hospitals, primary care centres, and nursing homes.
- Requires Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment to review the provision within 3 months of the bill coming into force.
Employment Equality (Abolition of Mandatory Retirement Age) Bill 2022
14 Nov 2024 First Stage Lapsed Louise O'Reilly
- Removes employers' legal right to force workers into retirement based on mandatory retirement age clauses in contracts.
- Excepts security-related employment roles that have special statutory retirement ages already established.
- Allows workers to continue employment beyond age 65 for financial reasons or personal choice, rather than mandatory exit.
Responsibility of Social Media Platforms (Defamation Amendment) Bill 2022
14 Nov 2024 First Stage Lapsed Martin Kenny
- Amends Defamation Act 2009 to make social media platforms liable for defamation when they cannot or will not identify the person who posted the defamatory content.
- Shifts burden of proof: plaintiffs need not prove the original poster knew the statement was false or provided false contact details to the platform.
- Plaintiffs no longer required to prove what verification processes, if any, the social media platform used to identify users.
Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill 2022
14 Nov 2024 Fifth Stage Lapsed Regina Doherty
- Requires court permission before defendants in sexual offence cases can present character evidence at sentencing; prosecution and victims can question and challenge such evidence.
- Character evidence must be given on oath, affidavit, or statutory declaration; prosecution can present counter-evidence with witnesses in response.
- Entitles crime victims to legal aid for representation to cross-examine character witnesses at sentencing of sexual offence convictions.
Green Hydrogen Strategy Bill 2022
14 Nov 2024 Second Stage Lapsed Darren O'Rourke
- Minister for Environment, Climate and Communications must draft and publish a national hydrogen strategy within six months of the Act passing.
- Minister must consult relevant stakeholders during strategy preparation on topics the strategy should address.
- Bill establishes definitions and commencement provisions for the hydrogen strategy requirement.
Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2022
14 Nov 2024 First Stage Lapsed Mattie McGrath
- Requires Minister for Housing to produce and submit annual reports to parliament on Project Ireland 2040 implementation progress.
- Amends Planning and Development Act 2000 to place Project Ireland 2040, National Planning Framework, and National Development Plan on statutory footing.
- Enables annual parliamentary debate allowing TDs to scrutinise Project Ireland 2040 delivery and funding allocations for democratic accountability.
Planning and Development (Amendment) (Breach of Building Regulations) Bill 2022
14 Nov 2024 First Stage Lapsed Eoin Ó Broin
- Amends section 35 of Planning and Development Act 2000 to require planning authorities to consider past building regulation breaches when deciding planning applications.
- Makes a property owner's history of non-compliance with building regulations relevant to future planning permission decisions.
- Creates a mechanism linking building regulation enforcement to the planning permission process for the first time.
Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (Extension of Notice Periods) Bill 2021
14 Nov 2024 Second Stage Lapsed Eoin Ó Broin
- Amends Residential Tenancies Act 2004 to automatically extend notice periods by three months when a local authority certifies a tenant as at-risk of homelessness.
- Local authority must certify tenant cannot secure alternative accommodation and will become homeless upon quitting the dwelling to trigger the extension.
- Aims to give tenants time to find housing and allow local authorities to provide homelessness prevention support before emergency accommodation entry.
Protected Disclosures (Amendment) Bill 2021
14 Nov 2024 First Stage Lapsed Mairéad Farrell
- Expands who counts as a 'penalised' worker and protected 'employee' to include unpaid workers, associated persons, and journalists; protects anonymous disclosures.
- Shifts burden of proof to employers to disprove penalisation claims; makes hindering disclosures an offence; removes caps on fair and equitable compensation.
- Adds optional free legal aid and psychological services for whistleblowers; requires annual statistical reports to Oireachtas; allows interim relief applications in Circuit Court.
Seller’s Legal Pack for Property Buyers Bill 2021
14 Nov 2024 Second Stage Lapsed Marc MacSharry
- Requires sellers to compile and advertise a standardized legal document pack with properties, containing key information to give buyers upfront access to conveyancing details.
- Aims to reduce property transaction times, costs, and fallen-through sales by front-loading legal information rather than handling it after sale agreement.
- Applies when sellers list properties for sale; pack covers exceptions and includes enforcement provisions aligned with existing conveyancing and property registration laws.
Local Government (Maternity and Family Leave for Elected Members) Bill 2021
14 Nov 2024 First Stage Lapsed Holly Cairns
- Allows local authority members to take maternity, adoptive, parental, and force majeure leave without needing council approval, matching staff entitlements under existing leave laws.
- Protects members from deemed resignation due to absence for childbirth or adoption by treating notified leave as approved under current attendance rules.
- Extends the 6-month absence limit to account for eligible family leave periods, preventing automatic loss of membership for qualifying absences.
Education (Health, Relationships and Sex Education) Bill 2021
14 Nov 2024 Second Stage Lapsed Gary Gannon
- Makes evidence-informed health and relationships/sex education a mandatory function of state-funded schools.
- Requires schools to teach health education only per curriculum prescribed by the Minister.
- Expands school inspectors' role to evaluate teaching of health and relationships/sex education; curriculum reviewed every 5 years.
Health (Inspection of Emergency Homeless Accommodation and Asylum Seekers Accommodation) Bill 2021
14 Nov 2024 First Stage Lapsed Eoin Ó Broin
- Expands Health Information and Quality Authority's inspection powers to cover emergency homeless accommodation funded by local authorities and asylum seeker reception centres.
- Amends Health Act 2007 to add five new accommodation types as 'designated centres' subject to Authority oversight and quality standards.
- Requires Health Minister to obtain consent from Housing and Children Ministers before approving standards for these facilities.
Credit Union (Amendment) Bill 2021
14 Nov 2024 Second Stage Lapsed Marian Harkin
- Amends Credit Union Act 1997 to allow credit unions to provide additional financial services to members for mutual benefit, subject to board approval and required regulatory authorizations.
- Establishes a Credit Union Policy Committee to review Central Bank policies, provide feedback during policy development, and represent stakeholder interests in the credit union sector.
- Requires Central Bank to protect community-based and volunteer ethos of credit unions when regulating them, and requires Minister for Finance consent for minimum reserve requirements.
Safe Access to Termination of Pregnancy Services Bill 2021
14 Nov 2024 Fifth Stage Lapsed Paul Gavan
- Creates legal protections for facilities providing lawful abortion services and those who work there or use them.
- Prohibits harassment, intimidation, or obstruction of people accessing or providing termination of pregnancy services.
- Addresses connected matters to protect free and unencumbered access to legal abortion facilities.
Organisation of Working Time (Workers' Rights and Bogus Self-Employment) (Amendment) Bill 2021
14 Nov 2024 First Stage Lapsed Louise O'Reilly
- Makes it an offence for employers to misclassify employees as self-employed when the actual working relationship is that of an employee.
- Extends Organisation of Working Time Act protections to Garda members, Defence Forces personnel, sea workers, and trainee doctors.
- Grants self-employed workers entitlements to daily rest, weekly rest, annual leave, public holiday pay, and limits on average weekly hours.
Maternity Care (Covid-19) Bill 2021
14 Nov 2024 First Stage Lapsed Peadar Tóibín
- Requires hospitals to permit one accompanying person to attend with mothers during labour, birth, and specified occasions before and after delivery.
- Allows accompanying person to visit baby in neonatal or special care units, with broad definition to cover fathers and others.
- Permits hospitals to refuse accompanying person only if Covid-19 positive test or symptoms present substantial transmission risk in circumstances.
Betting (Prohibition on Use of Credit Cards) Bill 2021
14 Nov 2024 First Stage Lapsed Thomas Gould
- Betting licence applicants must pledge to Revenue not to accept credit cards or credit-card-equivalent payment systems for placing bets, directly or indirectly.
- Existing licence holders with more than 3 months remaining must give the same undertaking within 3 months of the Act commencing.
- Breach of undertaking enables the Minister to revoke a certificate of personal fitness or apply to District Court for licence revocation.