Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

The only way in which I may be able to help the Deputy is to clarify that section 372AB of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 provides that the Minister for Finance can revoke or amend an order. To date, amendments have been made to three designation orders, two of which were for the town renewal scheme and the third of which was for the urban renewal scheme. All the amendments related to mapping or transposition errors that resulted in the expert panel's recommendations not being fully reflected in the signed orders. The errors did not come to light until after the orders were made. In no case was an amendment made on the basis of a request by developers, local authorities or site owners for changes to a designation because the type of designation did not match their planned project for the site. For example, if part of a site was excluded on a map in the original order, the amendment process could be used. However, if all the technical details were in order but the developer simply preferred to go for new build rather than refurbish the existing property, there is no procedure by which the designation could be appealed. Only if a detail has been excluded in error can an amendment be introduced under this process, as has happened in three cases.

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