Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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First, in regard to amendment No. 6, we oppose the amendment. I understand the concerns the Deputy has raised but they are not appropriate in legislation that is specifically about winding down an authority because clear and enforceable fire safety requirements are already set out appropriately in primary legislation, including in the Building Control Acts, the Fire Services Acts, the Planning and Development Acts and the Multi-Unit Developments Act. Restatement of statutory obligations that already apply generally under existing law in new legislation prepared for a specific and limited purpose, such as this Bill, is unnecessary and serves no additional purpose. In fact, depending on drafting and interpretation issues, a restatement may also inadvertently weaken the application and enforceability of existing requirements.

Furthermore, there are perhaps unforeseen and possibly unintended but potentially critical consequences arising from the proposed amendment. For example, the inclusion of the wording "or other planning regulations" in the amendment would appear to have the effect of limiting the provision to planning-related fire safety requirements, such as road access for fire brigades and proximity to water mains hydrants, and, therefore, as a consequence, non-planning related issues, but more likely fire safety breaches, such as the construction not being in accordance with the fire safety certificates, defective fire compartmentalisation in buildings, fire stopping around building services, inadequate fire detection systems in building units and inadequate emergency access and evacuation provisions in buildings units, which we all agree are very important, would unfortunately be excluded if we were to accept the amendment. For those reasons, I do not accept amendment No. 6.

Amendments Nos. 7 to 12 are Government amendments. These six amendments are technical in nature and their collective purpose is to amend planning enforcement provisions in Part 8 of the Planning and Development Act 2000, so that they unambiguously apply to developments in respect of which a section 25 certificate has been issued by the Dublin Docklands Development Authority, or a section 12 certificate by the Custom House Docks Development Authority. The amendments have been put forward following extensive engagement between officials in my Department and the Attorney General’s office.