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

I support Deputy O'Callaghan's amendment. I do not accept the Minister’s argument that 15 years would disincentivise local authority enforcement action. In the majority of cases, local authority enforcement action is initiated by a planning enforcement complaint from a member of the public, and on foot of that, a statutory process kicks in. I do not see how what the Minister is saying would operate.

The real solution is to go further than the amendment. I will table an amendment on Report Stage. It should be a set number of years from discovery. We have had this conversation in the context of defects.