Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the Minister of State is addressing the group but will he address specifically the idea that exempted developments will no longer be transparently available in the sense of being in primary legislation? We have not yet seen the exempted developments that might come by way of secondary legislation. I suggest we amend the Act to reinstate the powers in primary legislation. I think the Minister of State will try to persuade me it is more appropriate to do it in secondary legislation and I am open to that argument but there is significant concern that there is no transparency about what will be in those regulations. If the Minister of State gave a commitment to provide details of that secondary legislation, utility providers like Irish Water, which approached me on this matter, could look at it and say it does not interfere with how they carry out their work and they will be able to continue to do that. I ask the Minister of State to either include the amendment in the primary legislation or to give transparency on what the regulations will be as regards secondary legislation on exempted developments.