Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

We are almost up to eight minutes, Deputy Ó Broin. I have to move on.

I have a question in this open round. There are time limits on the pre-application process. The local authority has to agree to a meeting within four weeks of a request and then issue the decision, or its opinion, within four weeks, I think, of that final meeting. Is that so? Is the entire pre-application process time-bound? If a developer applies to go into the pre-application process and puts in a request for something preliminary before that final meeting, is the developer considered to be in the planning process? I ask that question in the context of land on which development has stalled or is not taking place. Would that be possibly used as a reason to say "I am in the planning process now so I am trying to develop this land"? That might create difficulties in applying vacant site taxes or levies. My question is whether the entire pre-planning application process is time-bound.