Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

On a specific point on the quality of documentation submitted with planning applications for large-scale housing developments, I note - and I have looked at many of these applications and I am sure many of the members have - an applicant will often put in the number of schools that are in an area, the capacity of those schools, but not necessarily the excess capacity or the capacity of the schools to deal with that increased population that may happen in the area. I take the point made by Mr. Hogan earlier that the development of 100 houses in a large urban area may not have a massive impact, but in a smaller area, it can, and can overload the school system where the system may not even have that capacity. Is it something that could be sought, whereby in the pre-planning application stage the local authority could require the applicant to show the excess capacity in that school as the development is built and populated and what the demographic requirement would be in that area? Is never seems to be a requirement of a planning application.