Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I learned a long time ago never to question the logic of the Bills Office as it always has some reason. This amendment is not just about Oireachtas approval. The Minister is absolutely right. We had a lengthy and detailed discussion on that specific point. Therefore, that is not really the point I want to focus on because the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell, made the Government's policy clear. I will say, however, that national planning policy statements are different to policy in that they have a statutory impact that is different to almost any other kind of policy, in that they have the effect of law. The fact they have to be approved by the Government as is set out here demonstrates that. In an interesting way, and I am not against this idea, they sit somewhere between legislation and policy in that they have the look, feel and detail of policy but they have the impact of law. That means they are of a different order. That is my first point.

With respect to whether Deputies on this side of the House would be in any way impacted by becoming partial decision-makers on this, I do not believe we would be in the sense that, for example, that is not the case with the exempted development regulation changes where we are at least involved in that process. I accept it is a weaker process than what I propose here. If the Minister is asking me whether I would prefer to have an input into the setting of a policy that has statutory effect and to be excluded from being involved in individual planning matters, absolutely, I would much prefer as a legislator to have that level of involvement.