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

I thank the Minister for his outline of what the Bill involves. By way of a general comment, rushed planning legislation, unfortunately, often leads to bad planning outcomes. Too often in previous years we have seen very complex and technical changes introduced at the last minute to already very complex planning and development legislation, the outcome of which has been to make our planning system more complex and cumbersome and less participative than it should be. I have to say, and I will explain why in a moment, that I have some concerns with the information before us today. Having said that, I fully understand the need for these provisions. As a result, my concern is not with the principle but with the fact that, unfortunately, we have very little time to tease out these measures. While I, along with the rest of the members of the Oireachtas housing committee, agreed to waive pre-legislative scrutiny because we understand the urgency involved, we had hoped to get some written independent views from planning organisations which, unfortunately, we have not got as yet. This is not the fault of the Minister or the people we wrote to, as they are all busy. However, it puts us in a very difficult position. We want to be constructive. We want to help. We want to make sure nobody is disadvantaged by Covid in the county development plans or in the delivery of homes but we are left grappling, nonetheless, in an imperfect timeframe.

I do not have an enormous concern about the county development plans but perhaps in his reply the Minister can give us some more information. I would be interested to know how many local authorities have been in touch with the Department requesting a possible extension and which local authorities these are. I know my local authority is quite advanced. South Dublin County Council and Dublin City Council have found, surprisingly, that there has been a far greater level of input in the pre-draft consultation phase, in part facilitated by greater online engagement. I would like to know who is asking for it. I also wonder why there are not more defined criteria in terms of the grounds on which local authority elected members can request it. It does seem quite general. Will the Minister outline his thinking with respect to this? Will he also outline why there is the fixed date of 1 January 2024? Is this the final cut-off point or could there, indeed, be a further extension?

Do I have ten minutes with additional time for my colleagues or are we all within the remaining seven minutes?

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