Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will clarify some matters concerning exempted development declarations. The only answer to the question of whether a development is an exempted development is that this provision does not make the development exempted. This is important. A development will have to adhere to enforcement proceedings. Indeed, all planning decisions are on the planning register and publicly available. In essence, sections 10 and 11 are replacing section 5 of the 2000 Act on where the planning authority or the commission may give a declaration as to whether a matter referred to it constitutes development and, if so, whether it is exempted development. That is what we are doing with this change. What we have seen happening is a move away from utilising section 5 as a form of enforcement proxy – this is important – without the necessary due process and checks and balances. We are streamlining the process so that, as Senator Cummins said, the owner of a development can request an exempted development declaration. That is important. I am satisfied that the provisions we are introducing on the use of exempted development declarations are sufficient to allow our planning process to be more streamlined.