Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will try to be helpful here. Earlier, I said that I cannot accept the amendments as they are and that I want public participation. We will see when we come back on Report Stage if there is a way, as has been suggested by a number of Deputies, whereby, maybe by way of regulation, we could issue circulars to local authorities. I have seen the issues that Deputy Ó Broin has described in my area. There is a lot of good ad hocpre-planning where a decent developer wants to find out what is going on, for example. That should still happen. However, Deputy Duffy is right in what he is saying, namely, that we cannot publish everything for every pre-planning application in areas of high development when you are trying to go through different iterations of applications. A balance has to be found. Everyone will know what happened at pre-planning stage in every application because that measure has been brought in. Let me see if I can come back with something to address this. I am not promising an amendment but I will try to come back with a method that we could use for those groups. The term "any person" that Deputy Cian O'Callaghan mentioned is covered by the word "groups". I have clarified that with the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel in respect of amendment No. 17. I will come back specifically on this matter on Report Stage. We greatly improve the transparency and the consultation if people know what happens at pre-planning but I take the points that have been made and I will come back to see if there is another mechanism to address this. There is merit in what has been said by members.