Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Great. If Deputy Ó Broin has applied for a 25-storey apartment block and the local authority has said it is highly inappropriate and should not happen, people will be able to see that and point to that in their observations. If that goes to An Bord Pleanála, there are other issues there which we will deal with. That is all part of the process. That is transparency. The passing of this legislation will mean that this has to happen as part of the process. I discussed this at committee with Deputy McAuliffe.

I am afraid I can accept the thrust of neither of Deputy Ó Broin's amendments at this stage. I want to put an end to SHDs in order that the new regime will kick in from 17 December. With regard to public participation, I refer Deputies to section 4, on page 6 of the Bill:

The planning authority may, prior to the LRD meeting taking place, consult with any person who may, in the opinion of the planning authority, have information that is relevant for the purposes of the LRD meeting in relation to a proposed development.

That aspect of it is included, but I will certainly look at the matter further. It is not appropriate to this Bill. Is there a mechanism to provide for this through a PPN? Deputy Pringle mentions "the locality" in his amendment , which proposes that "'Community Organisation’ means an established, active and representative, residents organisation, based in the locality of the proposed development". That would require us to get into defining "the locality". What is "the locality"? Is that the local electoral area? Is it the county? Is it the region? Given all of those things, one could not just take that amendment as it is. It could very well lead to having people involved in a pre-planning situation who should not be involved and who may get involved for other reasons, as well.

We want to make sure that pre-planning is transparent and it will be. More work can be done on involvement at a pre-planning stage. It has been mentioned that ad hoc pre-planning consultations can happen. In my job as Deputy, I have certainly seen such consultations in my area between the proposed builder or developer and the local community. This can lead to many of the potential issues and fears being dissipated and a better scheme coming in. I mentioned an issue at committee. That will happen anyway. We do not lead to legislate for common sense. Common sense should prevail, in many instances. Where people work with communities-----

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