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

This is an important point and we are engaging in important dialogue. With his significant experience in local authorities, the Deputy will know as well as I do that a manager is not going to bring forward a Part 8 application if he or she knows a majority of the elected members will not support it. That is the way Part 8 provisions work. In many local authorities managers often decided to move a social housing project from under Part 8 to a standard planning application by an approved housing body either because privately elected members had asked for it in order that they would not have to take a difficult decision or to prevent them from blocking it.

The Deputy is absolutely right that there is no research-based evidence to indicate the number. Those of us who have been around for a long time and spoken to councillors in many local authorities know that part of the difficulty is that one cannot even get into the Part 8 process because the manager knows that good councillors under pressure from the electorate will feel under pressure to vote against a proposal, or other councillors who in my view are bad because they are taking the wrong decisions will also vote against it.

While there will still be a consultation role, a manager will be allowed to proceed, irrespective of a democratic vote. I do not believe that is good and I am with the panel on the issue. If, however, we do not remove the blockage-----