Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I might want to ask about town centres and how it will help with rural villages. On the regulations, I hear what the Minister is saying about the removal of the 250 sq. m restriction. My fear was that by having the limit and the number of units, we might end up going for smaller units of lower quality while those making the conversion might want to have larger units. There is a benefit in the 250 sq. m restriction removal and I welcome that. I had not been aware of the reason before the Minister just explained it.

My concerns are around reassuring people about exemptions. It is tricky to say to people they can have an exemption but we will still have some control. I want to talk about that. Of the external structure, 50% needs to be retained. Am I right in saying most people will not see additional height with this and there will not be additional changes? We are not talking about adding huge boxes on to an existing building and all that. The second issue is how it would fit into the existing streetscape. Will the Minister flesh out how that would work? Third, how would it relate to the development plan? Many councillors have contacted me and said they put a lot of time and energy into a development plan within which there are requirements. How would this dovetail with their development plans?