Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Amendment No. 456, tabled by Deputies Eoin Ó Broin, Thomas Gould and Aengus Ó Snodaigh, seeks to amend section 53 providing that a planning authority is to send a notice and a copy of a draft development plan to specified persons and bodies within a specified period. Section 53(3) provides that the Minister and the Office of the Planning Regulator may make recommendations in relation to a draft development plan. This amendment seeks to include that the relevant regional assembly may also make such recommendations. I do not consider it necessary to specify that a regional assembly may make recommendations in respect of a draft development plan. Under subsection (1), a copy of the notice and draft development plan is circulated to the relevant regional assembly. Under subsection (6), the planning authority must prepare a report on any submissions received, which would include any from a regional assembly, and give a response to the issues raised. This both appropriate and necessary.

The Bill seeks to introduce a plan-led system based on an integrated hierarchy of plan-making. This, in effect, means that a planning authority’s development plan must be aligned to a regional authority’s regional spatial and economic strategy and so a planning authority must take account of it when preparing a development plan. With respect to regulating such compliance, this is a function of the Office of the Planning Regulator. It is a role of the Office of the Planning Regulator to assess and advise the Minister, if a direction is warranted to, in their view, bring the relevant plan into compliance with the statutory requirements. Ultimately it is a decision of the Minister to issue such a direction.

On this basis, we cannot accept these amendments.