Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Particularly on those two sets of guidelines, I fully support the Department on that without prejudice to the content of them.

One of the other concerns is, in section 23, the definition of a so-called "national planning statement" is very broad. It states:

The Minister may, at any time, with the approval of the Government, issue a statement ... which shall comprise two parts as follows: (a) national policies and measures on planning matters to support proper planning and sustainable development ... .

I thought the Irish Planning Institute and the town planners made a compelling case that that was too broad and it could lead to further rounds of conflict, as we have had with some of the section 28 guidelines to date. They talked about possibly limiting the policy statements to things which relate to future planning rather than development management and that seemed a sensible approach. Has the Department considered their comments to the committee and is there a way of clarifying? Part of the problem with the section 28 guidelines, notwithstanding their legal ambiguity, is they cover so many different, highly technical and specific issues which relate to individual developments and more broader strategic long-term issues, for example, densities and rural planning. Is there a merit in that splitting and having policy statements on future planning rather than development management issues?