Section 247 of the Planning Act provides for voluntary pre-application consultations between persons who have an interest in land and the planning authority in order to discuss any proposed development regarding the land. This amendment will now make pre-application consultations mandatory in the cases of larger developments, namely, residential developments of more than ten housing units or non-residential developments comprising more than 1,000 sq. m gross floor space. Such pre-application consultations must be held within four weeks of receipt of a request from the planning authority.

I can go through the reasons we are making this amendment, but I think it is probably self-evident. If people are going to put a serious development together, there must be a pre-planning discussion between the local authority and the developer to make sure that the planning application is of a sufficient quality, that it has a reasonable chance of success and that it is consistent with local area plans and so on. For the first time, we are actually introducing a mandatory timeframe for that. Developers have said to me that when they look for a meeting they are being given a date six weeks away. Developers are trying to get funding for the development and so on. There is an onus here on developers to have a much higher standard of application that they need to get right through this pre-planning process and there is also an obligation on the system, that is the planning authority, to meet people in a timely manner and give them the guidance and instruction that comes from that so that we can have a more streamlined, predictable and better planning system. I hope that members will support amendment No. 77 in that regard.