Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thought that the Acting Chairperson was going to let me off the hook.

I thank Senator Black for these amendments, which all relate to the imposition of a monetary threshold on the scope of substitute consent by seeking to amend section 5 of the Bill. I oppose the amendments, which seek to apply a limit of €5.48 million to the upper commercial value of any future-facing development of the land that is the subject of the application for substitute consent. Such an imposition would unreasonably limit the type and extent of any future development permissible and runs contrary to the reasonable objective of section 5. The Government's amendments to the Bill are intended in exceptional circumstances to bring developments that have been determined to be operating outside of environmental planning law back into the planning framework irrespective of the commercial value of the sites. In the rare cases where substitute consent is sought, it arises after a bona fide mistake has been realised by the developer - this often follows a court judgment that has revised a common legal understanding of whether a development or class of developments was in breach of the law - and the developer seeks to correct the mistake formally, with the developer exposed to the significant negative risk of mandatory enforcement and remediation of the site if substitute consent is reduced.

It is not the Bill's intention to preclude any site from being brought back into the planning system by way of substitute consent based on commercial or monetary value. Therefore, I oppose the amendments.