Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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I ask the Minister of State to bear with me. I raise the point only because our job here is to consider these amendments. Some of the questions we may raise and some of the commentary we may make would depend fundamentally on whether we can categorically say that what is proposed both by way of the amendment and what the amendment is amending in the Bill is exactly the same as the current Act, and there is some ambiguity on that. That is the first thing.

Second, I would like to know, notwithstanding the confusion around that, whether, if the planning authority seeks additional time instead of, for example, seeking further information, that has any effect on its subsequent ability to request further information. We often hear about the cases where a local authority is under pressure to make a decision - it might have a resourcing challenge - and, instead of making a decision, it throws out a request for further information. Is this to try to avoid or deal with that to give the authority some more time? If the applicant agrees to give it more time, can it still request further information at the end of that period?

The Minister of State keeps using the phrase "a small bit of time". "A small bit of time" is not mentioned in the legislation, so who gets to decide how much time? Again, that is quite important. I am not making a case currently for or against that, but it is not a small amount of time. Ultimately, the applicant has to agree to it. For example, however, some FI requests might require studies to take place at a certain season of the year and, given where the decision-making timeline might be, that could be six months away from the request. It could be a matter of days or weeks or months, and the applicant then has to make a decision as to whether he or she gives an additional amount of time or faces the risk of an FI request that could require a considerably longer time.