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

The Minister has referenced looking at the environmental groups. To give an example, you could have a very scenic area of natural beauty. You could have development that takes place in it. The people who carry out the development may view it as being exempted development but there are lots of people who that could have an impact on, and who might have an opinion on it. It is not just neighbours or the wider community. It is a scenic area of natural beauty. It could be people who visit the area regularly, such as walkers and so forth, who all have views and will be impacted by this development. They would all have an interest in potentially wanting to point out something that they feel is not exempted development and that is happening without planning permission. They may have recourse to a section 5 declaration, or a section 10 as it may be. In terms of any public participation, they may have valuable information that would be useful for the planning authority to have. I would be concerned about the Minister referencing environmental groups. I have given him an example there and I actually do have locations-----