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

I cannot comment about other local authorities but there have been occasions in Dublin city where very significant sites were delayed for a Part 8 planning process on the basis of, and I am trying to be as non-contentious as possible, a dispute over the nature of the make-up of the site. It would not necessarily only be about roads. It could be about the mixture of housing, the tenure, the funding model and all of those types of things. The two most controversial ones were the Oscar Traynor Road and O'Devaney Gardens. In both those scenarios, the Part 8 process and the failure of the councillors to agree a way forward was a very significant contribution to the delay. In some cases, I think it was justified and, in other cases, I would have disagreed with them, but I think that is one reason this has come about.

The second reason is, and it is important to say, that it is limited in the sense that people have to be on site and under construction by December of this year. It is a very time limited provision which is, I imagine, how it was able to get past the Attorney General. The third element is that it is limited to pubic housing. Fourth is where it is in compliance with the development plan, which has already been approved by the councillors. We are in a housing shortage so we must react like in an emergency and that is why the provision was introduced.