Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2026: Committee and Remaining Stages
Seanad Éireann — 2026-07-14
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Christopher O'Sullivan (FF), Cork South-West

While I cannot accept the amendment, that would be the approach that would be taken in this regard. Amendment No. 3 seeks to provide that the "Minister shall lay a report before both Houses of the Oireachtas every 6 months from the commencement of this Act detailing the impact of the amendments to Part 4 of the Principal Act related to alterations of existing planning permissions and detailing the location, nature and volume of such alterations by project and local authority area and the resulting commencement of developments that have secured the alterations". As I said, I am not in a position to accept this amendment. I consider a statutory requirement to produce such a report every six months to be excessive and I fail to see the real merit in such an obligation, especially considering that the provision in question, namely, the proposed section 138A, is explicitly time bound and will cease to have effect after a period of two years. I see no reason section 138A cannot be reviewed by my Department on an administrative basis and, if required, the effectiveness can be accessed once its operation has concluded. That speaks to the Senator's point. There will be a monitoring. The proposed amendment is not appropriate.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-07-14/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:52:15+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-07-14