Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)

There is no enforcement of commencements. I understand the Minister's officials in the Department are liaising with local authorities with respect to determining whether developments that are availing of the development levy waiver and the water utility connection waiver are having a look at this. Local authorities do planning enforcement, but many do not even have the staff to do building control enforcement. There is no system for enforcing this.

While I understand the Minister is not accepting the amendments, there is a requirement for them. Granting somebody a three-year extension of planning is quite a big issue. Therefore, it is reasonable for members of this side to ask the Minister, if he is not willing to accept the amendments we have tabled, to find some way to ensure that the extension of duration he is granting is not abused. I am not suggesting the abuses we are concerned about will be widespread or occur in the majority of developments, but instead of just saying that local authorities are very experienced at enforcement, we need to ward against anybody who intends to avail of this for a reason other than commencing. There is no enforcement of commencements; it does not exist. Therefore, that is something that is certainly worthy of being looked at, particularly in the context of this issue.

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