Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This is about where there is a conversion above a shop or previously vacant empty commercial space to bring it into use for people to live in. What we are exempting is the need to seek permission to change planning from commercial to residential. That is the essence of the exempted regulations. There is work being done that will come to a conclusion very shortly which will streamline the process for certification for those buildings that avail of the exempted regulations. There will be no diminution in standards as they currently apply. I would like to see this progress as quickly as possible. I appreciate the detail in which the Deputy laid out his concerns in a letter to me yesterday evening. I have a written response for the Deputy, which I can give to him and all members of the committee after the meeting ahead of the debate later on in the Dáil. That work is coming to conclusion quite quickly. This is something that people have been looking for for quite a while. The Deputy has brought forward his own legislation on this. We believe we do not actually need the legislation for parts of it; we can do it through this SI and I would like to get that done today, if possible. I will give that letter to all members of the committee after the meeting and they can go through it in detail because Deputy Cowen raised some detailed questions which no doubt the Minister of State, Deputy English, could have answered on Tuesday. That is the situation.