Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I have listened to the Minister. I have kept quiet but I intervene when I think it is important. With regard to the considerations for the issuance of a national planning statement, in deciding to issue a national planning statement, it is stated that the Minister shall have regard to the setting out of policy guidance, planning matters and blah, blah, blah, “including, but not limited to, the following”, and then we have the relevant paragraph (n), which states: “integration of appropriate architectural urban design and quality standards into development plans, urban area plans, priority area plans, coordinated area plans, the preparation of development schemes [which is where it starts to get problematic] and the assessment of any application for development consent under Part 4”. It is this last clause, “the assessment of any application for development consent under Part 4”, that we are seeking to delete.

Is the Minister not at that point, in the formulation of the things he is considering in the national planning statement, veering from slightly higher-level policy guidelines to taking into account a specific application that may be made under Part 4, which is surely the job of the planning authorities? It is not the Minister's job to consider a particular application but that is what the Bill states at “and the assessment of any application for development consent under Part 4”.