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

I will take the last question first. I covered this on Second Stage and in the Seanad as well, but I am happy to go through it for members here. First, we will publish the regulations this month in relation to further information. I want to give members an idea of the limitations I am considering. The limitations on further information would purely relate to matters that would reasonably have been expected to have been included in planning applications generally or as a result of issues raised or discussed as part of the pre-application consultation stage. It is not my intention to limit further information altogether.

It will be possible to address matters raised by third parties during the five-week public consultation stage of a planning application, material issues which could not have been foreseen or raised at a pre-application stage, material errors in documentation and faults or deficiencies in environmental impact assessment reports or Natura impact statements, or other relevant environmental documentation, among other things, by means of further information requests as deemed appropriate. They are the parameters of what I am considering.

On Deputy O'Callaghan's amendments, the inclusion of provisions for the modification of previously permitted developments under the Bill seeks to provide legal clarity in respect of such applications. Under the strategic housing development process, which is to cease, applications for modification are submitted directly to An Bord Pleanála. To avoid any type of gap in the legislation in respect of strategic housing development permission, given the proposal to reinstate the role of the planning authorities as the consenting authorities for large-scale residential developments through the Bill, it is deemed appropriate that applications for modifications to strategic housing developments as well as large-scale residential developments would be made directly to the relevant planning authority in the first instance, which is the correct way to do it. Where modifications proposed to a previously permitted development are deemed by the planning authority to be very minor in nature, there is a provision in the Bill for the planning authority to determine that pre-application consultation is not required and that the planning authority need only consider the proposed alterations in determining the modification application. This reflects the minor nature of some modifications that may be proposed and the fact that the large-scale residential developments proposals will have previously been subject to detailed pre-application consultation, thereby allowing for the most efficient use of local authority resources. That is our view on the matter, and I cannot accept amendments Nos. 34, 35 or 42.