Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We will now continue as the Joint Sub-committee on Petitions to record the decisions of the committee. The committee has received a total of 128 petitions to date since the launch of the petitions system. The secretariat has been examining them to establish admissibility of the petitions and how best to progress the petitions for consideration by the joint sub-committee. One hundred and six of the petitions received have been brought before the committee on at least one occasion. There are four petitions to be discussed today. We have had a chance to deliberate on them in private session and now we will record our decisions in public session.

The first petition is No. P00031/12, An Bord Pleanála's view of planning precedent in local authorities, is from Mr. Pat Clarke. This petition emanates from the refusal of planning permission by a local authority and subsequent appeal to An Bord Pleanála. After the appeal, the petitioner lodged a complaint to An Bord Pleanála on the grounds that although the petitioner, the applicant for planning permission, included in his appeal many examples of precedents that demonstrated that planning permission had been granted by the local authority to other applicants in similar circumstances, that is, that the local authority had not applied the same policy planning requirements to other applications as it had to the petitioner, there was no reference to these instances quoted in the inspector's report and, consequently, these did not form part of the appeal. It is not within the remit of An Bord Pleanála to ensure consistency in documents provided to it from one case to another. I call Deputy Kirk to record the decision of the committee.