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

Under subsection (3) on page 216 the planning authority "shall give notice". If it is going to utilise this procedure, there will be a notice. That notice will be "in such form and manner as may be prescribed". By whom may it be prescribed? The notice will be to the "public and to such persons as may be prescribed of any motion" and "submissions may be made". There seems to be a conditionality on that. For clarity, is it the case that the planning authority, when it is bringing forward this proposition, gets to decide whether the public and prescribed persons are given notice and invited to make submissions? Is that going to be done through guidance from the Department, a circular or a national planning policy statement? Would it be possible for the planning authority not to do that? Could it simply proceed without public participation?

I accept that this is not a rezoning but it is a de facto rezoning for this one development. That is materially significant and is a significant change to the zoning decisions that were made in the development plan process. It is important that there is at least a similar level of public participation guaranteed, rather than being optional and left to the manager or someone else to set out.