Edward Timmins (Wicklow, Fine Gael)

I want to raise two other related matters. The Minister of State has referred to one of them, which is headroom. The time taken for these amendments to the county development plan is too long as it can take up to nine months. Can we look to expedite this timeframe? To discuss in more detail the issue of headroom, from my experience of development plans, the previous direction from the Office of the Planning Regulator was 0% headroom, which is very misguided. It is imperative that there be a considerable percentage headroom because in practice many sites will not be developed for various reasons. All landowners are not ready to go to developers. In the real world, site development often has many obstacles, including cost, that may lead to planning refusals. I suggest headroom in the order of 70%.

See this speech in context