Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Amendment No. 52 is to page 41. When we draft a Private Members’ Bill, most of us now realise that it is not likely to proceed right the way to the end and we are always looking for an opportunity to hook something from a Private Member’s Bill onto a Government Bill as it goes through the House. I have a Private Members’ Bill that has passed Second Stage and our committee is in the process of scrutinising it. This amendment seeks to introduce three other types of exempted development and relates to what was originally in section 4. While the section originally listed exempted developments, that is now to be done in regulation. These three exempted development categories are taken directly from the Private Members’ Bill that I drafted. It actually originated as a Fianna Fáil Private Members’ Bill that Sinn Féin sought to reintroduce and it has a great deal of support. It has to do with bringing buildings back into residential use, which is something which the Minister is committed to doing. That is why I sought to introduce these three categories of exempted development. I can see now that they are probably not appropriate to the Bill as set out, given that the exemptions will be set out in regulations, but when those regulations are being considered, I would like the Minister to consider these.

The Minister addressed the subject matter of amendment No. 56, which relates to exempted developments and unauthorised structures or buildings. I will set out the scenario I envisage. Where there is an unauthorised structure or building and someone attempts to carry out work on it while claiming it to be an exempted development – under section 4, someone is allowed to perform maintenance, minor maintenance, upgrades, etc. – it would not be considered exempted because it was an unauthorised structure of building.

There should not be the ability to claim exempted works or developments on a structure that is unauthorised. How can that be addressed in the Bill?