Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will follow through on the Minister's response on the question about the statutory instrument. It is something we had hoped to see progress on. The Bill I put before the committee sought to address it. As a previous speaker has said, and as I said in a communication to the Minister when I became aware of it yesterday, the statutory instrument does not go as far as I had hoped. The Minister is saying it cannot; he is saying he is merely exempting conversion developments of up to nine units from planning permission and he is saying it is subject to existing building control measures. Is there a streamlining of the various certification authorities within the local authorities to provide the exemption in a manner that meets the demand in the marketplace and will allow these properties to come into use more quickly than is the case? In the absence of clear certification models or improvements, I do not know if that is possible. If it is the case, I do not see the need for that statutory instrument to be brought forward at this stage when we do not have clarification on the other matter.

I apologise again to the Minister for not being here on Tuesday when the Minister of State, Deputy English, brought this before the committee. I had to attend a conference as others had and when I became aware of the content of the statutory instrument I made the Minister aware of my concerns in writing. I hope we can come to a conclusion that would allow the instrument to pass today but if not it is not the end of the world and we can work together to ensure the certification process accompanies a statutory instrument as soon as possible.