Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I would like to respond briefly. What is happening in regard to declarations and exempted development is the Minister is taking the public out of the process, which is wrong, and he is substituting a very limited number of environmental NGOs under very specific criteria. Not only does it shut out other environmental NGOs and organisations but it shuts out the entire public, which puts the limited number of environmental NGOs under a significant burden because the only way members of the public can access these declarations is through trying to contact one of the environmental NGOs to ask them if they can put in a request for a declaration of exempted development. That puts those organisations under particular pressure and a burden, which means only people with the access and know-how to go to one of those organisations can then access a declaration of exempted development. Shutting the public out and putting a very limited number of environmental NGOs under a specific responsibility and burden is not a way to fix this situation at all. It could have been done by simply reforming the existing process.

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