Ms Claragh Mulhern:

The intention is very much that it is national policy. Generally speaking, section 28 guidelines, particularly the ones we have been discussing, tend to be plan led. In planning hierarchy, the national planning framework, NPF, is at the top and then it goes down to the regional strategies, the development plans and the more local plans in that order. As the Deputy rightly stated, the plan-led approach is really important. The intention of those guidelines is that they are an extension of national policy set out under the overall high-level starting point offered by the NPF. That is the key: it is national and Government policy.