Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Basically, we are extending on a temporary basis the principle of getting An Bord Pleanála to deal with big applications. The reality is that they are likely to end up with An Bord Pleanála anyway. We are talking about a streamlined system. I think the question that has been raised about a proposal to regenerate or change an entire quarter of a city by means of a new development plan or a new strategic development zone is a fair one. Senators might be familiar with the docklands site in Cork or some of the student plans in Galway city, where there is huge pressure. Most of the private rental market in Galway is driven by students.There is an onus on a local authority to put a local area plan in place and perhaps to designate or ask for designation around an SDZ to work with developers. An Bord Pleanála is anxious to make the right decisions here and I expect that if there was something on the scale of 10,000 student accommodation units, or even 3,000 or 4,000, there would be a public consultation process involved in the decision. In most of the normal residential applications, there will not be a formal public consultation process because that would make it impossible to make a decision in 16 weeks. If there was an exceptional application in terms of scale or controversy or something like that, An Bord Pleanála could go through an extended period of time that would include a formal public consultation process, which is something we are used to anyway under the Planning and Development (Strategic Infrastructure) Act. We would not need to do that for most of these applications because most of them will be housing applications on land zoned for residential housing. It should not be that controversial. It should be about getting the design and density and all of the other aspects linked to good planning decisions right.

I have answered most of the questions and if we can move on, perhaps we can deal with the individual issues as they come up with the amendments.