Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

That is one example. I will take Senator Martin's point, however. For instance, a Minister may think that there should be planning permission for betting shops and fish and chip shops. Those are two things that a reasonable Minister might decide the residents of a road, or owners of neighbouring shops, have a right to be consulted on because the nature of those two businesses causes problems. That being the case, what does it matter what the premises were in the first place? I cannot understand why it would have to be in a prescribed category to attract this power of the Minister's. That is the point I am making.

The same applies to the example the Minister of State gave of a warehouse turning into a supermarket or vice versa. It does not really matter. To take Senator Martin's point, I see that a betting shop cannot become a fish and chip shop, but that will be very rare. The real thing is to control fish and chip shops or betting shops, not to ask what they were in the first place. That is the point I am making. The section seems to be badly drafted.