Mr. Conor O'Connell:

We are calling for the zoning of sufficient land. The local authority development plan process has gone from nine years to six years and the headroom allowance has gone from 50% to 25%. We have had instances right around the country where the Office of the Planning Regulator has written to local authorities saying that they have zoned too much land. For instance, one local authority area has put in a tier 3 approach, which is that if the land in tier 1 and tier 2 does not come to the market or if it is not developed as per the Chairman's example, then it can look at tier 3 lands nearby.

This flexibility within the system allows for all the various different constraints that often are not seen in the development plan process, such as the knowledge of where the wastewater treatment plant is or the capacity of the pipe network.