Ms Maria Graham:

While planning is a national competency, obviously when we get into the environmental sphere it is very much an EU competency. Senator Boyhan referred to case law. We are very aware of what is coming from the European Court of Justice and the kinds of issues that have been coming up over the years. We are watching those directions of travel. In our engagement with the Commission, this idea came up of overcomplicating. The possibility that we might have overcomplicated things in some of the ways we have transposed directives - that actually we may have complicated things too much - was a theme that came to me from the discussion. The Chair referred to the purpose of the environmental directives. This would be my sense of where they come from. The purpose is to protect the environment. It is important to come back to the main purpose and then ensure it is being transposed correctly from that point of view.

One of the things that is common in the European legislation is the concept of recitals, setting out at the beginning of the legislation what the intent is in doing it. It is very informative in terms of the interpretations. That is one of the things that may be important for us in concepts like planning and sustainable development. I refer to the overarching terms. It may be useful for the Planning Acts to be clearer at the outset as to what is it that we are trying to achieve. I am not sure if there was anything else that came from the discussions with the Commission.