Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy makes an important point because it is not the board that will adjudge the LSRDs, although it may do so eventually in the case of an appeal, but the local authority in the first instance. It is the executive planner who would normally give that presentation to councillors. We need to seek clarity and a circular from the Department on this to ensure there is full standardisation across local authorities and no legacy ways of doing things in order to have complete fairness across the entire system.

We have reached the end of our time. I thank Mr. Mandel, Ms Cashman, Mr. Kenny and Mr. Venckens from the Dublin Democratic Planning Alliance for their attendance. I also thank Dr. Norton from the Irish Planning Institute, Mr. Benson and Mr. Parlon from the Construction Industry Federation and Ms Conway, Mr. Rainey, Ms Henchy and Mr. Kelly from the County and City Management Association. I think we would all join Senator Boyhan in wishing everyone in Mayo the best of luck on Saturday. They have been a long time waiting.

The committee will now write our pre-legislative scrutiny report. We will take on board some of the recommendations witnesses made in their submissions and some of what we learned from them during the question and answer session and from our meeting on Tuesday with Department officials. We will submit that report to the Department and it will consider it in publishing the Bill. The witnesses will be sent a copy of the report when the committee has agreed it and the amendments that are to go into it.