Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

That is fine. You or I might not be able to foresee a circumstance here today, but we must at lease make provision. I do not see what the difficulty would be in the OPR, which is independent, being given the option of initiating an assessment a development plan. I do not envisage the OPR doing it that often, or maybe at all, but if I were to remove that option - I know it is not in the current system - I might be accused in some way of trying to reduce the office's ability to look into development plans. While the Deputy is correct in stating that it has done this through all of the various development plan cycles, and the office has done its work very well heretofore, provision is being made just in case something were to come up in order that a future Minister would not have to come before the Oireachtas to seek an amendment to the legislation to provide for an assessment to be done outside of a variation, a material contravention or a development plan.