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

I would urge some caution here. First, in the case that Deputy Boyd Barrett talks about, if it was such a dramatic change to the original Part 8, councillors have the right to vote it down and to force it back out. I do not know the details of the case in question, but that is a procedure that is there.

I would also caution Deputy Matthews because my experience in South Dublin County Council where we have done lots of Part 8s, both when I was on the council and subsequently, in any of the Part 8s I have ever dealt with – I cannot speak for the other local authorities - managers and county architects are very reluctant to make very significant changes. If I think of any of our residential Part 8s, there was the map of the Part 8 and it was clearly delineated in the public documentation, and one could never make a proposal that would go outside that red line. Permeability is probably the one case, where in certain instances, to get a certain level of public buy-in there are restrictions on it. Sometimes that can make the difference between getting a Part 8 through and getting the homes built or not. That also depends on the configuration of the councillors, the strength of the residents' groups, etc.

It is something that is worth looking at because it needs to be explored but having been in a local authority, in those decades I can only think of one Part 8 that was ever refused. From memory, it was in Firhouse and not on our side of the constituency. That is testament to the fact that the Part 8 process works very well. If something is not broken, we do not need to fix it. I just offer that by way of observation. The one big difference with a Part 8 is that there is a level of democratic accountability, and visibility and transparency.

The Minister can correct me if I am wrong but I think in the last decade to decade and a half in the four Dublin local authorities the number of Part 8s for residential developments that have been refused is tiny. The Firhouse one might be the only one.