Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Okay. That is grand. I will withdraw amendments Nos. 480 and 490 on that basis.

Amendment No. 501 is the last in the grouping. Section 60 relates to the expedited variation of a county development plan. We had this discussion already on the regional spatial and economic strategy. This provides, in section 60(3), that "the chief executive shall, with a view to avoiding duplication of assessments, take account of the fact" that an assessment has been done by the Minister. I totally agree with avoiding duplication because we do see a lot of it in planning. What I want to have is some ability for the chief executive, if he feels that the Minister's assessment may have been inadequate or did not take something into account, to apply to put his own screening assessment in place. We had this discussion in relation to the RSES and I think it was something the Minister was willing to consider or examine for Report Stage or at least to consider the merit of giving the chief executive the latitude to do that.