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

Amendment No. 1046 and 1047 seek to add clarity to the text of section 351(5), surrounding the disclosure of contact information and personal data. While I do not see a particular difficulty with the proposals, it would be inconsistent to accept the amendments and not equally insert "telephone" before "number", so I think it would be better to hold the amendment for consideration on Report Stage and, if tabled, to include "telephone". If that is done, we can accept what is proposed.

Amendment Nos. 1048 and 1050 seek to provide that documents or information greater than 12 years from the creation or receipt by MARA or the planning authority shall be archived, and made available for inspection on application, as prescribed in regulations. While I understand the need for certain historic records of planning – we discussed e-planning in detail and I gave members further detail on the roll-out – relevant information will be available online. It is not practical to store all correspondence in hard copy format indefinitely, and under GDPR certain information should be stored only for as long as is necessary. I cannot accept this amendment from a document-management point of view. However, I acknowledge some planning applications are of historic importance. All our local authorities have archivists and we have seen much of the good work they are doing, and in this context I can think of current applications that would be worth maintaining in some form or other. I am not sure whether this is appropriate to the Bill but I will think about what threshold should be set. Many things we see now will be of historical importance in the future, and the associated documents, particularly those related to significant changes to an area, are such that there is much validity to what the Cathaoirleach has proposed. I would like to refine it a little and talk to him again about it. There is merit in what has been proposed and we should examine it.