Mr. Niall Cussen:

There is good meat in that but before coming to the substance of the questions - Ms O'Connor will come in on where we fit in with regard to the population piece, whether that was got wrong and so on - I will make a point on An Coimisiún Pleanála. The structure of the commission arose from two review reports we did into issues that arose there. They are obtainable on our website, etc. That fed into a Government action plan on the reform of An Bord Pleanála, which then led into the Planning and Development Act. There are significant innovations in the Planning and Development Act 2024 around our role in relation to the commission.

We are a body that is, if you like, watching the systems and procedures used by all planning authorities, including the coimisiún, that relate to the discharge of their day-to-day planning functions. One of the functions we did not have under the old 2000 Act, but will have under the 2024 Act is that we will be in receipt of any correspondence about concerns members of the public have about the performance of the board or matters going on there. We have an excellent working relationship with the coimisiún as it is now. Mr. Mullan and his colleagues and my management team met only in the past week or so, and we do so as part of a quarterly process of constant engagement looking at how things are working out with it in practice, especially with regard to the recommendations issued in our two review reports. That whole governance and oversight model of the coimisiún, which plays an absolutely critical role in our planning system, is a hell of a lot stronger than it was in the past.

The Deputy raised a few questions about the cascade from the national planning framework to local development plans, whether we got it wrong and how it works out in practice. I will ask Ms O'Connor to respond to that briefly and then I will comment on some of the other points.