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

With regard to amendments Nos. 11 and 12, if I am a developer and I have a live planning approval in my local authority area or an adjoining area for 100 units, I do not see how any of the justifications the Minister of State has given would warrant me wanting a separate planning application to be fast tracked. Poor market conditions would affect my existing planning permission as it would new one. If there is a change in the type of units required, an amendment can be made to an existing application, which would be quicker than a strategic planning application. I find it hard to understand why, if the purpose of this is to assist developers to get planning applications more quickly than the current 88 week process, if someone has a planning application of that size in that local authority area would we even entertain them while they were not actually actively building. I cannot understand the opposition to these amendments.

Amendments Nos. 13 to 15, inclusive, relate to the review that would be conducted from 2019. With these amendments what we are trying to ensure that not only would the Minister have to lay before the Dáil a review report, but there would be some level of public consultation on the outcome of the review, there would be full disclosure of all of the documentation in this regard and, before any of this could be extended, there would have to be a decision of both Houses of the Oireachtas. The amendments would have no material impact on the stated intention of the Bill, which is to fast-track large planning applications between now and 2019. I am quite hopeful the Minister of State will be willing to accept amendments Nos. 13 to 15, inclusive, as they stand, or consider looking at them to bring them back on Report Stage.

It is about introducing greater public involvement in that review process and greater involvement of the Oireachtas in any decision to renew this set of proposals if such a thing arises.