Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for the further information. Sinn Féin has no difficulty with regulation 1 and 3. I will make some comments on the second one. We absolutely support the intention of the regulation. All of the parties in this House want to see over-the-shop commercial units, in particular, brought into residential use particularly in rural towns and inner city areas as quickly as possible. I raised some questions at committee before I had to leave on Tuesday but I read the Official Report afterwards. I discussed the matter with the Minister of State last night and we had opportunities to question the Minister, Deputy Murphy, about it today.

I have four concerns. The Minister of State addressed one of them, which was the compliance requirements, although I still wonder if it would not have been more appropriate to have something making that very clear in the statutory instrument as opposed to the verbal commitments afterwards. I also have a question about whether the enforcement powers of the local authorities with regard to breaches of regulations are in any way diminished by the absence of the planning permission. For example, if, notwithstanding the fact there are still assigned certifiers, there is something inappropriate, can the local authority still go in and do inspections and carry out enforcement action in the absence of a planning permission?

I absolutely share Deputy Cowen's concern about the fire safety technical guidance documents. The worry is somebody might apply, or not apply as the case may be, for this exemption following the passing yet there is a grey area in terms of what exactly are the technical requirements. I am specifically concerned with fire safety. I support Deputy Cowen's request for further information about that at the soonest opportunity. The deadline for consultation on the new draft guidelines for minimum apartment sizes was today and I am not clear how that is going to affect this. In many cases they will be apartments and it is not clear whether the new guidelines are only for new build apartments or for renovations.

We do not want to delay this. We do not want to stand in its way but our concerns are genuine. If there is anything else the Minister of State can say to us today in committee or on the floor of the House to allay our concerns we would be very grateful.

I also urge an extra level of vigilance if this is to go through. Notwithstanding that we are supporting enthusiastically the Fianna Fáil Bill and we want to see the one-stop-shop enacted, an extra level of vigilance should be put in place both at Department and local authority level to stamp out situations where an unscrupulous property owner sees an opportunity to subdivide inappropriately and create substandard accommodation for people, some of whom may be in very vulnerable positions. I am uncomfortable having to make a decision in the absence of some of that information today although I appreciate there was a clash with committee on Tuesday and that is not the Minister's fault. These are genuine concerns and it is really important they are addressed today and in the days and weeks coming.

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