Mr. Paul Hogan:

I will ask my colleagues to speak on this as well. The point of the shift in additional information from the eight-week planning application stage to the earlier level of consideration is so that it just does not arise and that final eight-week part of the consultation is essentially a dry run where everything has been discussed and ironed out.

Negotiation has taken place. We now want to see what the developer is going to submit, and whether it is a reasonable basis on which to move forward. That is when the report on the scope comes back, which relates to one of Deputy Ó Broin's questions as well. This is the point at which questions are raised that might otherwise in the past have been for information. It is clear, then, to the applicant, at the final formulation of their application, what they need to submit to avoid that sort of scenario.

There has to be a facility, because things may newly arise that might have not been considered. There could be significant environmental matters that they have just refused to address. As has been mentioned already, we have obligations in European l terms. The sorts of things would be covered by additional information would be things that arise that are new, and things that are significant and unavoidable. We will have to allow some degree of flexibility, so as not to cut things off and not to curtail the process, if it has gone so far. However, it would have to be practical and enable things to by and large be dealt with before an application is even made. It should be on the developer’s time to get it right, not when the gun is to the head of the officials in the planning authority and when elected members and the public are all concerned that these things have to be considered in a short eight-week timeframe, as things stand.

Regarding breaches of local area plans and statutory plans, because An Bord Pleanála does not deal with the application in the first instance, the local authority is obliged to give effect to its own development plan. In theory, there should be a better alignment between the planning application and the level of consideration. Having said that, An Bord Pleanála is empowered under section 37 of the Planning and Development Act to take a view that is different to the development plan, should that be necessary. At times it can be, because there may be local policies from previous times that might not align with more up-to-date Government policy. Again, as plans are updated, this is being ironed out and addressed, and, hopefully we will see less of that. Certainly, we wish to strengthen development plans and local area plans to bring them more in line with policy generally, so that the board does not have to go down the route where applications end up in appeal.