Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I agree with what the Minister said around the regulations and why they are so badly needed. Also on a couple of points that were made around consistency, the guidelines provide such huge opportunity to give consistency. The Department, through the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, is working at the moment on rural housing guidelines to replace existing guidelines. Things like that are so important. When you look at one-off rural housing in South Dublin County Council, for example, and how differently the local needs assessment is taken, interpreted and used versus a couple of miles down the road across the border in Kildare or Wicklow, consistency is required. That is why we need these kind of regulations.

The Minister spoke about the judicial reviews. Unfortunately, we have had so many judicial reviews when it comes to strategic housing developments, SHDs. Some 50% of judicial views came from environmental legislation. Yes, height is a concern and there is a lot going on that space, but it is important to note that as well and to look at that.

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