Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

As I mentioned in the Second Stage debate, Sinn Féin is opposed to section 6 and seeks to delete it. We do not know why it is in the Bill. It has nothing to do with large-scale residential developments or SHDs. It is just a change in the procedures for appealing a judicial review decision of the High Court. We wonder why it is in the Bill and who asked for it. It was not in the general scheme on which the Oireachtas committee carried out pre-legislative scrutiny.

Of the 50 strategic housing development judicial reviews, only two went to the Court of Appeal. As I said on Second Stage, this does not seem to be about housing and it has nothing to do with large-scale developments. It is to do with the reform of the judicial review process. I wonder where this has come from, who drafted it and who asked for it. Why is this not being done in the judicial review legislation? As Senator Higgins said, in what circumstances can this leapfrog mechanism be used and in what kind of developments? Does the Attorney General or Department anticipate that it will be used before the judicial review legislation comes into effect?