Mr. Terry Sheridan:

I will ask Ms Neary to respond on the issue of reservations regarding fire safety, ventilation, access etc. Generally speaking, we are on the same page. We want to achieve the same objectives. We are informed by pillar 5 in the Rebuilding Ireland plan, which includes a commitment to review the planning legislation to allow the change of use of commercial into residential without the need for planning permission and we are working on that. Since earlier this year, we have broadened that commitment to review the building control requirements with a view to streamlining the planning aspects as much as we can and exempting specific conversions from the current requirement to obtain planning permission. We are also working to streamline, and perhaps better co-ordinate, the management process around building control by local authorities. We have a working group working on that aspect and we are fairly advanced, particularly on the planning aspect.

We hope to present the exemption development regulations to the committee very shortly. We are on our third draft now and a further meeting on Monday will hopefully result in a fourth and close to a final draft. That is very advanced and we are also making progress on the other aspect. The Department has the same objective as the committee but we are trying to come up with the most streamlined process possible while maintaining standards in respect of fire safety, access, structure, etc. Ms Neary can go into more detail on the reservations.