Tim Lombard (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome this important Bill. We are in the kind of emergency situation that places an onus on us to pass the Bill as fast as we can in order to tackle the current housing crisis. Section 3 covers a period of three years with a possible extension of two years. The provision applies to housing developments that are comprised of over 100 units, which is not the normal size of a housing development. The Cork county development plan was based on nine master plans and catered for developments comprised of many 1,000 units. This legislation is important in the context of large-scale developments.

Cork has one strategic development zone. Such zones play a part in ensuring we have enough housing units to tackle the housing crisis.

This new legislation follows on from the strategic Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2006.The latter was introduced to cater for major projects and led to requests for planning permission literally going straight to An Bord Pleanála. It worked effectively and we are tweaking and changing it. One of the key aspects of that planning Bill was that it allowed the Executive and councillors to have a submission made through a public meeting. It worked very well. I worked in that process and I saw it go through my own local authority in Cork on two separate occasions. With what is being proposed, we are not reinventing the wheel but we are trying to ensure larger housing developments can be fast-tracked and we can get them delivered at a faster rate. I hope the Minister will take into consideration the 2006 legislation that worked effectively, with Members having an opinion on that Bill. That process worked well and we can follow it with this Bill.