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

My final point on these two amendments is that the procedure for a resolution to annul the regulation is not a check at all. One assumes that the Government will have a majority and that it will be able to defeat a motion to annul the regulation. I am not aware of any such resolution even having been tabled during my time here. If one were tabled, it would be lost. The idea of a check is that, for example, the Minister would come before this committee and we would scrutinise and discuss matters and suggest improvements or changes. Where that has happened, particularly when there are proposed changes to exempted developments, it has actually proved very fruitful. The committee has worked very well in such circumstances. If that is the Minister of State’s suggestion of a check, then it really is opaque, weak and - as I know from my 12 or 13 years in the Oireachtas - has not been used on a planning-related matter.