Mr. Paul Hogan:

At the highest level, it is certainly where matters of national policy need to be reflected locally. That is the mandatory element of it – the national planning statement bit. That needs to be reflected through the hierarchy of plans. The cascade, as it were, is from the national to the regional to the development plan. It is intended to influence the plan system as opposed to individual decisions, but it can be taken into consideration when we are within that critical period prior to it having been reflected in plans. The intention is that it will be very quickly brought into the planning hierarchy, as opposed to leaving it hanging there and applied on an ad hocbasis to individual decisions.