Listening to some of the contributions today on planning - I welcome that we will be discussing planning later with the Minister - I was reminded of a really good article published in The Irish Times during the week which had the subtitle, "Public participation and environmental scrutiny are not the enemies of progress [in the planning process]". I hope we will remember that today as we reflect on a number of issues.

I wish to raise the issue of items Nos. 1 to 7, inclusive, on the Order of Business.

They all relate to exempted development. One has to ask why they are being dealt with today. Why not three or four weeks ago? I support the referral of these motions to the committee for its consideration, but Members will or should be aware that these are a substantive part of the legislation we will be considering later today. Members will also be aware that this legislation was guillotined in the Dáil last night and of the limited amount of time we have to discuss this issue. It all might be very well at the moment because the odds are stacked against meaningful opposition and that is what we have to live with at the moment, but time moves and is cyclical in politics. There are people on one side of this House who will be on the other side after the next election, and there are others who may not be here at all. Time moves on, but planning is a long-term thing. I welcome the fact that the motions are being referred to the committee, albeit late. I will be revisiting this later during the debate on planning. I contacted both Ministers yesterday and informed them that if the public consultation in relation to these matters was not published today, I would submit to the Department a series of freedom of information requests that I drafted last week. The Ministers and their officials are aware of that.

This is important. We have to be clear about what we are doing. We are referring this to the Oireachtas joint committee and that is important, but it is a pity it has taken so long and it is particularly important and significant that it is happening today.