Mr. Philip Jones:

Section 334 relates to what documents should be made available by a local authority. Further on, section 335 details what needs to be available for public inspection. After that, documents from the commission are dealt with in section 336. It seems, from our initial examination, that it is all left to regulations for local authorities. However, rather concerningly, with regard to what I call chapter 4 applications, which are direct applications to An Bord Pleanála or the future commission, it seems the proposal in the Bill is that only the landowner or the person who has carried out the development can see, post-consent, what the documents are. The public is completely taken out of that. I fully accept the Deputy's point that documents should be digital and they have been for strategic housing developments and strategic infrastructure developments, SIDs. I am concerned that the legislation, rather than putting it into regulations, specifies that after the consent, only the landowner or the person carrying out the development can see the documents. If a resident sees something going up nearby that was granted directly by the board, he or she will not be able to see the documents to check whether it is in accordance with the documents because he or she will not be allowed to see the documents. There is a need to change that section to provide that any person is entitled to see those documents. I cannot understand why the Bill excludes the public.