Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

The actual selection and designation process for areas to be designated under the town renewal scheme is a matter primarily for local authorities and an independent expert advisory panel set up by the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. I understand that in accordance with the Town Renewal Act 2000 and the 1999 Guidelines on the Town Renewal Scheme, the designation of sites is decided in the context of town renewal plans. It is for the relevant county council to prepare and submit such plans, including proposals on the designation of specific sites for tax incentives, in accordance with the appropriate criteria as outlined in the scheme guidelines. These plans are assessed by the independent expert advisory panel, which makes recommendations to the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government on the areas to be designated and the appropriateness of the categories of relief that should apply.

The expert panel is confined by the Town Renewal Act 2000 to examining the specific proposals put forward by local authorities in their town renewal plans. The expert panel on town renewal exercises an independent role in assessing the plans submitted and in making recommendations on the sites to be designated in the context of the plans submitted by the various county councils. The recommendations made by the panel are accepted in full and designations are implemented on that basis.

Given that the sites selected for designation by county councils, examined by the expert panel and subsequently approved for designation follow a very detailed, structured and well thought out process, it was not seen as necessary to establish an appeal process when the procedural arrangements for designation were put in place.

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