Mr. Colin Ryan:

There is a need for LAPs and some sort of functionality to do with appropriate development for local areas and the unpacking of development objectives. There is the issue of the tiering and the hierarchy of the national, the regional and the administrative area, be it for a local authority like South Dublin County Council or another county local authority such as Cork. It is something we will be looking at and we would welcome the views of the committee. The 5,000 population limit is a bar. A significant amount of effort goes into an LAP. This could possibly be looked at in a different way that meets the development needs of a county or administrative area but does not necessarily mean every town over 5,000 requires an LAP. Some other locations within the county might need a type of plan similar to an LAP, although it might be called something different, because it has to be appropriately assessed and there has to be flooding risk analysis and a strategic environmental assessment, SEA. There are significant resource implications for these LAPs that might not necessarily be the best direction in terms of focusing our planning system. We would welcome consideration of this.