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

We discussed these amendments previously. Senators Wall and Moynihan raised them in the Seanad. They would be exceptionally onerous vis-à-visthe new process. One of the amendments refers to the beginning of a large-scale development from grant of permission at 24 months and the other one refers to six months. Amendment No. 38 proposes permission should be granted for six months only and removes the right for it to be varied. I strongly oppose these amendments. I discussed this with Senator Wall and while I do not want to take away from the amendment's worthiness, the potential impact of it was not fully understood. I get where the proposers were coming from. They were concerned that lots of SHD applications were submitted and permission was granted but they never effected. That is something about which we all share a frustration. The LRD will be much better because the process is back with the local authorities and there is a good, robust pre-planning stage. I would be very concerned about setting arbitrary timelines like this. A 24-month or six-month timeframe, as detailed in the amendments, would not be attainable and we would end up with good planning permission grants falling and having to go back into the process again. We had a good discussion on this in the Seanad and to be fair to Senator Wall, he understood where I was coming from. On that basis, there is a use it or lose it piece that we need to look at. SHDs had a really poor conversion rate but LRDs will be different. That is why we are giving the planning element back to the local authorities, which is where it should be. Unfortunately, I cannot accept amendments Nos. 36 and 38.