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

I thank the Senators. We discussed this issue on Second Stage, at which point Senator Warfield suggested we would not have any transitional arrangements. We want to get rid of SHDs and that is what we are doing, but we require a transition. SHDs exist right now and if people have made their applications under the current planning law and are in pre-planning or in planning, one cannot just tell them they will be redirected into a new process even though they have entered into the existing process. That would leave us open to all sorts of challenges.

We are ending SHDs early. They were to continue up to the end of next February and there would then have been a transition phase that would have continued past that date. I decided to end them early. They did not operate as intended. I am not saying they were not brought in with the best of intentions in the context of speeding up the provision of planning. I have been clear on what I wanted. That was negotiated with colleagues in Fine Gael and the Green Party with regard to not extending SHDs. They could have been extended further but we are not doing that. We are ending them.

To be fair, the amendments proposed by Senator Warfield recognise that a transitional arrangement is required. That was not recognised on Second Stage. Transitional arrangements are required when we make changes to planning because if people are engaged in a system, they cannot legally be ripped out of it and told they are going into a new one. Much as one may want to do that, we have to be cognisant of the law. In fairness, the Senator is proposing to reduce it collectively to eight weeks but, based on experience with SHD arrangements to date and the scale and technical nature of large SHD planning applications, 16 weeks is considered an appropriate and realistic timeframe to have between receipt of an SHD opinion and the subsequent submission of the SHD application. It is a strict timeframe of four months that will allow applicants to appropriately address any issues raised in the SHD opinion they received. The Senator is proposing to reduce that to eight weeks but he is acknowledging that transition arrangements are required. That is fair. As SHD arrangements involve a two-stage process that spans a minimum of 25 weeks, there will be several applicants who have already undertaken a significant amount of work with the aim of submitting an SHD application. It will be necessary for them to have been engaged in the process at pre-planning.

I am satisfied that what we have done now in transitional arrangements provides for a reasonably prompt wind-up of SHDs while simultaneously being practical and fair, as we must be because we want these applications that come through to deliver homes. What we are bringing forward strikes a balance. In fairness to the Senators who tabled the amendment, they now recognise there is a need for transitional arrangements. That was not recognised by some on Second Stage, but that is fine. That is what the legislative process is for. We bring people along with us as best we can. I cannot accept amendments Nos. 38 and 39.