Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Go raibh maith agat a Chathaoirligh and I thank all the witnesses for their presentations and contributions to our work. As the Chair alluded to, 23 years of iterations of this legislation and then 18 months of work have gone into preparing what is just a draft. I come from the public representative perspective and dealing with lay people and constituents who are trying to engage in the planning process. They have a number of opportunities to engage. There is the development plan process, where a specific planning application is with their local authority, and if that is appealed, An Bord Pleanála, and then finally, they end up with the witnesses or their colleagues. Thankfully, it is a very small percentage of developments that end up in the courts. What we really want to try to do in amending this legislation is to create greater clarity, certainty and consistency to our planning developments. Dealing with the legal aspects in this regard, it is really important we get that right. There are two areas I would like to focus on in my opening questions. First is this issue of locus standi. that is, basically, people having a legitimate position to engage in a legal way on a development. Can Ms Minch provide clarity on one point? From the way it is currently drafted and proposed, if individuals or groups had either made a submission on the development in the development plan or in a planning application to either their local authority or An Bord Pleanála, would that automatically qualify them as having legitimacy or a locus standi as she describes it?