The Deputy is going well; he should keep going.

We will have a Committee Stage.

I will be back.

Fuair mé an litir freisin.

Tiocfaidh mé ar ais chuig an Teachta tar éis na díospóireachta.

Tá an litir sin faighte agam freisin agus tiocfaidh mé ar ais chuig an Teachta agus do Theachtaí Dála eile sa Dáilcheantar.

Rubbish.

The Deputy is always positive. She should carry on.

The Deputy said lobbyists have the run of the place. They certainly do not. Go on out of that.

The Deputy voted against-----

I thank Senator Ruane. This is one we discussed at length on Committee Stage. My position has not changed. It is considered that these amendments would be overly prescriptive. We are changing it now to improve it from 15% to 30% but the intent is to allow the discretion with the local authority. I do not have to advise Senators that we had an extensive debate on Committee Stage when there was lots of really good interaction. This is about restoring planning to local authorities. If we are restoring it to local auth…

We do not want to be overly prescriptive with regard to what the planners do. We need to ensure when we are bringing back planning to local government that we allow them to operate and make the decisions. The amendment relates to the definitions section of the Bill. I do not believe inserting an obligation on planning authorities in the definitions section is appropriate and the amendment does not provide for how and when such consultation would take place. In respect of amendment No. 10, educational facilities, de…

Again, this amendment has been re-tabled. In fairness, Senator Higgins outlined her position on this and I explained why I did not believe it would be appropriate. My primary concern regarding student complexes is that they should not be used as permanent residential accommodation or as a hotel or hostel. I issued this circular a number of weeks ago. They are dedicated student accommodation complexes and that is how it should be, particularly always having regard to the general shortage of student accommodation. We…

I thank Senator Ruane for these amendments. Again, we went through these in great detail on Committee Stage. I propose to address amendments Nos. 4 and 20 first. These are matters far more appropriate for building control and are dealt with in our building control and standards legislation rather than planning legislation. The area of the rights of persons with disabilities is one that we all espouse and we make sure that we do have universal design concepts in place too. To have this in the Bill, however, would si…

I thank the Senators for their contributions. We have discussed these amendments and they have a great deal of merit. The two amendments are similar. I said on Committee Stage that we would work together to see how we can move the situation forward. There is merit in such proposals, although I did flag that there may be issues around structure and wording. I note that the Senators have come back with a revised wording for such a provision. As I have said, amendments Nos. 6 and 7 are very similar but I am happy to a…

I thank the Senators. We accepted the previous amendment, but we cannot accept every amendment. I will give the reasons we cannot accept those under discussion. We have discussed this. Let me return to the original point. This is about restoring planning functions to local authorities, which is what the Government wants; however, it is also about restoring the primacy of the development plans. We discussed this the other night. I refer to the crucial matter of having boots on the ground whereby councillors have the…

I refer the Senators to section 34 of the principal Act which, as amended on Committee Stage, means that every councillor will know when every application is lodged under this process. It states: Where a planning authority receives an application for permission to which section 32A(1) applies it shall— (a) notify the elected members of the planning authority of the making of the application, of where the application is available for inspection, and of such other information as may be prescribed. That removes any di…

The purpose of the legislation is to get communities involved. Senator Boyhan quoted from the review committee's report, which relates to SHDs, but the SHDs will cease to exist on 17 December. New applications will be through the LRD, with the exception of the transitionary arrangements that are in place. I understand where the Senator is coming from with the two amendments. We discussed the matter at length on Committee Stage. The language in amendment No. 12 better reflects what we want done. I want transparency …

I thank the Senator. We covered these matters in great detail on Committee Stage. I have nothing further to add. I will not be accepting amendments Nos. 13 or 14.

I will not if it is being withdrawn. The Senator is correct; we did debate the matter.