Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I recall reading a book that was a 20-year review of the 1963 Act. It was done by Professor Berna Grist. She examined the Act 20 years after it was introduced. It was the first planning Act. One thing that jumped out at me was the Construction Industry Federation, CIF, as it was at the time, complaining about development contribution charges that far back. I am looking for assurance that this is a temporary activation measure and that we will assess it but we want it to be reintroduced because if it does not contribute to affordability, we do not want to take that measure. SCSI worked out that the levies, including water charges and development contribution, are approximately 4% of the associated costs. It would be considerable for somebody buying a house. Following on from that we will see sections 48 and 49 reintroduced back into the planning Bill then as well. That is good. I thank the Minister.

We had the SCSI before us recently. I am promoting the organisation a good deal today. Its representatives talked about the real costs of refurbishment in a good report that had many recommendations. One matter I raised was about what is called a "one stop shop" to try to streamline matters. The Minister will be familiar with this because his colleague, Deputy Cowen, introduced a Bill in, I believe, 2017 and I extracted quite a few parts from his Bill for my own Private Members' Business on the same matter. Are steps being taken to simplify that process around planning exemption and regulations without reducing the standards and then that certification process?

There appears to be quite a barrier to what we are trying to do in terms of vacant commercial-----