Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 21 February 2023

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government

General Scheme of the Planning and Development Bill 2022: Discussion (Resumed)

Mr. David Minton:

I will just make one quick observation. In the context of some comment earlier on about the Northern Irish planning system, from an international perspective, we are the envy of many countries around the world. We have a very coherent planning system, however beset by challenges we are. We know who makes the ultimate decisions and where the appeals come from. In many other jurisdictions, that is just not the case. It is important to remember that we have a system in place here from An Bord Pleanála, the OPR and at national regional and county level, which is very coherent. This is about trying to amend that, as opposed to trying to replicate other territories where there is much more fragmentation in the system.