Mr. Niall Cussen:

In relation to my comment about other parts of the Bill maybe needing a bit more work, I am still trying to work some of those transitional arrangements through in my mind. I saw the Deputy's questions to the Department yesterday, or the day before yesterday, on the continuance of section 28 guidelines. We are quite worried about their continuance and implementation in practical terms. For example, in practical terms, we have very important policy guidelines that were put in place in 2008 and 2009, in relation to flood risk. Local authorities have to have regard to those guidelines, which is something the courts now have decided. There is nothing worse than developments - and I have seen them while combing back through those which were approved in the past - where maybe no proper regard was taken of flood risk issues and then there is the devastation and indeed the huge draw on the public purse to fix the issues through flood relief measures and so on. These developments should probably not have been there in the first place. The maintenance of a proper planning policy and a regime that deals with really pressing issues around public safety, habitats - there are 30 or so guidelines out there - and their conversion into national planning strategies or guidelines is going to be a big job. We will have a lot of work to do to ensure guidelines that are increasingly out of date now, are properly reflected, as well as those operating in a somewhat less than clear legal framework. That is something I would like to look at in a little more detail and engage with our departmental colleagues on.

Something that was not actually mentioned earlier was the digital agenda in terms of services. One thing that is remarkable about the planning service, despite all of the changes in legislation and policy and so on, is that it is still a hugely paper-based process. Ms Buckley spoke about shopping trolley-sized planning files trundling around the offices of An Bord Pleanála. Indeed, it is the same with local authorities as well. Eplanning is coming but the possibility of digital services transforming the efficacy and the performance of the system is an area that could be looked at as well.