Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

It is a sweeping power. These are planning matters and this is a planning Bill. We had an incredibly expensive tribunal looking into planning matters and one of its recommendations and conclusions was that there was too much centralised power in the hands of the Minister but since then things have only gotten worse. This Bill makes it worse again and gives the Minister sweeping powers to be able to issue regulations to modify any provision of the Act at all. The one safeguard that was in place in the last Act is now gone. Under this Bill, regulations do not require a motion to be passed by both Houses of the Oireachtas so the democratic oversight and scrutiny that was there for this incredibly centralised and sweeping power for the Minister is now gone. That is absolutely indefensible.