Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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I agree with some of the points made by Deputy Ó Broin and his questions. One usually only gets public interaction when there is a large scale development of 100 houses or more. This is a particular category that draws public comment but the opportunity for meaningful public interaction has been cut out.

A developer has six months to respond to a request for additional information. The delay is down to the developer. There are 83 weeks but a developer might take 26 or 20 weeks to respond. One can hardly blame the planning process if a developer has not responded in a timely framework.

This legislation should not be called a planning Bill as it is a development Bill because it cuts out the type of details that allows a local authority subsequently to ensure an application complies with planning permission. Very often local authorities find it difficult to interpret the conditions stipulated by An Bord Pleanála that were not originally written by local authorities but are then adopted and lead to a favourable decision being made in response to an appeal.

Has a risk analysis assessment been carried out on what can go wrong with the decision-making process for planning permission? Has a risk analysis been carried out on the kind of problems that will be picked up by the public purse later where there has been inadequate scrutiny at the planning stage? It is at the planning stage that scrutiny is needed. Planning decisions must have a local input and be properly interpreted by local authorities. Has a risk analysis assessment been carried out? If not, then costs will be incurred by those who live in the building, the people who live in close proximity to the project or the local authority.