Rebecca Moynihan (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I have a couple of quick questions. I will try not to focus on what other members have already asked. Could Mr. Cussen comment on the observations that have been made on the Dún Laoghaire development plan in terms of zoned land for housing? It seems odd to me that the planning regulator would make such a decision on somewhere within the county of Dublin in the midst of a housing crisis. I want to know the reasoning and the rationale behind the observations on the zoned land.

Second, I want to ask about the eplanning framework and some of the more practical ends of what happens in planning. We have proposals on strategic housing developments, SHDs. There is a very limited timeframe for residents to engage in what are very complex planning applications. I wish to ask a couple of questions on that. In terms of the dissemination of the website, has the planning regulator done anything to result in some of those websites being taken down? Currently I can go onto the local authority website and I can have a look back through plans for recent years. All of that documentation is with the developer of the strategic housing development. For the sake of posterity, how do we maintain those plans and ensure they are easily accessible and can be researched, in particular as so few of them are actually going to be built given that the sites are being flipped?

In terms of local authorities getting plans online, as we always do, we had a rush of applications on 23 December. There was a short period when people could make observations on plans. I am aware of cases in a number of inner city sites where we had three to four days following the information going up in the middle of the pandemic to get it online.

I also have a question on finding planning applications on the An Bord Pleanála website. It is at last possible to make a submission online, but has the planning regulator been in contact with An Bord Pleanála about the eplanning system and making planning more transparent?