Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We are introducing national planning statements because we want to ensure there is consistency. We have discussed this before. There are inconsistencies between different local authorities and their interpretation. The SPPRs came about because of the inconsistency. The SPPRs were to try to reduce those inconsistencies. Amendment No. 222 states: "other than guidelines issues under section 28 IC of the Act ". They are not guidelines. Section 28 IC relates to the SPPRs and uses the word "shall", so they are not guidelines; they are mandatory. We spoke earlier about the difference between "may" and "shall".

The evolution here has been that we had section 28 guidelines which were not being consistently interpreted. We introduced SPPRs. As we discussed briefly earlier, there are four SPPRs in the sustainable residential guidelines. They were brought in to try to provide more consistency. They are quite specific and cover areas such as separation distances and minimum private open space.

Instead of having two elements, namely, the section 28 guidelines and the SPPRs embedded within, we are now going to have one, effectively ensuring consistency with the national planning statement. The provisions are not guidelines; they are actually-----