Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We all want permissions activated. We have said that. We can have that discussion again. Everything we are doing aims to do that. That is the way the funding is provided under Housing for All. That is why we are bringing about planning changes. This is probably getting conflated with strategic housing development, SHD. The SHD process, in the context of the conversion of permissions to development, was not as intended and it was not as successful as was intended. However, we are moving away from that now. This is not SHD. This is back to local authorities. If the amendment were to be accepted, it would actually turn the fundamentals of the planning system on its head because it would involve the granting of permission on a person or entity rather than on a site. What it is actually saying is that the permission is not on the land. That being the case, where would we go with forward planning and plan-led development, which is what we should have? Under what the Senator is proposing, if Senator Boyhan, for example, applies for planning permission for 500 apartments, that permission sits on his head but not on the land in Palmerstown. It cannot be done. I do not know of any other jurisdiction where that is done. I take the Senator's point that this is not her preferred option, so I will not labour the point. It certainly is not my preferred option either, and that is why I cannot accept the amendment.