Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I think the amendment would add strength to what I am saying, and perhaps to what Deputy Matthews is saying as well. I agree generally that Part 8s are fine. I see no substantial difficulty in having this safeguard against the occasional one that makes a substantial change where people could then be presented with a development on which they never had an opportunity to comment. The Minister acknowledged that. I think it is reasonable to just set a threshold.

The Cathaoirleach, Deputy Matthews, said the word "substantially" but how precisely does one interpret what is substantial? I am trying to think of another example and maybe there are not that many. In the submissions, people are for or against something. Maybe the amendment might be a little bit of a tweak here or there and it is agreed or not agreed. If the amendment is really something that was not at all envisaged at the outset, if it was not in the minds of even the people who proposed it and if it was never considered but it ends up as an amendment and something that nobody could possibly have envisaged or was likely to have envisaged. It ends up as the thing that you then get, and people have never had a chance to comment on it. That is different. That does not happen often but it can happen and has happened. In that context, it would be reasonable to say there is a threshold after which there should be a public notice issued with an opportunity for people to make further observations.