Mr. David Minton:

At a regional assembly level, we are involved in some research projects on planning engagement and looking at European best practice. We must remember as well that it was only in 2018 that we had the introduction of the national planning framework. There has been a real maturity in the discourse around planning in Ireland. Covid has helped, with people being much more connected with the impact of poor planning in relation to the built environment. Our review of planning in Ireland, in particular the review over the past two years, shows there are some exemplary best practices of local authorities engaging with stakeholders on community projects. I think of Roscommon and Mayo and the various local authorities that have very good engagement processes. We will start to see that downstream, hopefully in a reduction in objections to projects.

The implications bring us back to resources. There are some very creative exercises that local authorities want to do, but the issue is having adequate resourcing. A forward-planning team that involves not only planning staff but the wider community, such as the local economic and community plan stakeholders and others, in the process needs resources. Those resources are not there and they must be provided to local authorities. It is interesting that we sometimes criticise ourselves a lot but when we look across Europe there are some very good case studies on it.