Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Let me give a real-case scenario though not an actual case. Let us say we have a large strategic development zone for many thousands of homes but there is a new government which puts in place a national planning policy statement. That then requires, if it is in the transitional arrangements as the Department says it will be, retrospective amendment of the SDZ. If the local authority in question decides it is not happy with that, as we found in SDZs before, that could hold up an entire SDZ for a year in the courts. The reason I mention this is that having got this wrong before, many members of this committee want to make sure we get this right this time so that we do not end up with a new set of problems, even if we fix what some people believe are the old ones.