Pat Casey (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I want to go back to when we were initially discussing this amending legislation in respect of the second period of extension. It did not matter what document we took up, regardless of whether it was the heads of the Bill, Library research or the pre-legislative scrutiny. When we were discussing the second period of extension, all that was mentioned was that it had to have been 20 houses and substantial completion of the site had to have been carried out. Deputy O'Rourke approached me in respect of a constituent of his who had been in contact with the Department. On 13 April the reply from the Department clearly set out as follows: The new provision will only apply to those housing developments which were granted their first extension for having substantially commenced development before the original planning permission ran out and will not apply to those developments that were granted an extension under section 42(1)(a)(ii) and will only commence work in the extended period of duration. Deputy Ó Broin was on the committee with me. I sat through all of this. It was never the intention for this Bill to stop the completion of developments that had substantially started. It was thanks to Deputy O'Rourke and my further engagement with the Department that we identified this flaw. I support and commend today's amending legislation, which addresses that issue. The sole purpose of the Bill was to deliver housing. There is no point stopping housing when it is almost completed by not allowing for the appropriate period of time permitted to a development which commenced in the first period of the extension. Those are my few words.

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