Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Amendments Nos. 183, 212 to 215, inclusive, and 220 all intend to introduce additional bodies, "prescribed bodies", in the majority of cases, to those already listed for specified notification and consultation requirements, such as the bodies that are to be consulted before issuing a national planning statement, the bodies to be notified if a strategic environmental assessment or an appropriate assessment is required or the bodies that are to be given a copy of a national planning statement following its publication.

Similar to the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, I thank the Deputies for their suggestions. It is likely that the proposals relating to "prescribed bodies" is workable even though an extensive range of bodies are already specified under the Bill. We would ask the Deputies to allow our officials to consider these consultation provisions in further detail as corresponding provisions elsewhere throughout the Bill may also need to be amended in a similar fashion. For matters relating to statutory undertakings, a set of consultations with the Office of the Attorney General on the matters may be required. We will look at the issue and we will be looking to amendments on Report Stage. In that spirit, I ask the Deputies to withdraw their amendments. It is a matter we will come back to on Report Stage. We note the points raised by the Deputies. We believe the issue has probably been dealt with but we do not particularly have an issue with looking at incorporating some of the suggestions they have made.