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

Let us say a local authority has something in its development plan that the regulator decides in good faith is in contravention with a national planning policy statement, on foot of which decision a draft direction is issued. That draft direction would be sent out for consultation. If some of the bodies in the consultation take views contrary to that of the planning regulator, the latter has to summarise such views in its report to the Minister for the Minister to decide whether to side with the planning regulator or not. I am not suggesting at all that the current occupant of the office would do the following, but a future planning regulator could, in producing the summary, either intentionally or unintentionally exclude those relevant sections of the submissions that contradict its own opinion. In some senses, the submissions invited by the regulator are on the particular belief of the regulator that there is material inconsistency with the national planning statement. There is a potential conflict there. Again, I am not suggesting such a thing would happen in the current context, but how do we guard against it? What is the mechanism? Is it hoped that, because everything is put in the public domain, the scrutiny to which it will be subjected will prevent intentional or unintentional filtering?

With respect to the development plans and area plans, in particular, I presume there will be a provision in the regulations for elected members and members of the public.

I refer to area plans, priority area plans or the co-ordinated area plans, because some of them will be quite localised and there will be quite a lot of public interest. Does the Minister of State envisage a role for wider public or civic participation and for the participation of the elected members who would have approved those plans? That is crucial. So far we have talked about prescribed bodies and there are some lists there. Does the Minister of State envisage those being in the regulations as well?