Mr. Terry Sheridan:

As I said, our primary focus in all of this from the beginning has been the urban areas of greatest housing demand. As I mentioned previously, the 2019 legislation did not apply outside the rent pressure zones. We are now going to have to devise new guidelines, which perhaps may have different criteria depending on where the properties are located. That is what we are in the process of doing. We are trying to set out criteria so that local authorities can determine individual applications on a case-by-case basis while taking account of the criteria that we will issue to them.

These will probably be guidelines that we will issue under section 28 of the Planning Act. They will be mandatory guidelines that planning authorities will have to comply with in the performance of their planning functions. We are not in the business of trying to put properties in rural areas where there is no housing need or demand out of business.