Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have two follow-on questions. I will talk separately to why I would prefer a reference to the State rather than the Government. The language that is used in section 107(3), namely "the development or proposed development is of strategic or national importance having regard to the policy of the Government", is used elsewhere when a decision is being made by a Minister or the Government. A Minister or the Government, one would expect, understands the policy of the Government, and the Government would argue it is, at least, democratically entitled to make decisions about what is, for example, of national importance because it represents the majority of the electorate. We are giving the commission in this instance the role, if I understand it right, of adjudicating whether a proposed development is of strategic or national importance. How would it know that? On what basis would it determine that? It is not its function. That is the first question.

My second question, and I may have misunderstood the situation-----