John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

As indicated in reply to Questions Nos. 38 and 45, there is a lack of consistency among local authorities. I presume the Deputy is referring to the local government service indicators relating to pre-application consultations, which indicate that there is a major difference from local authority to local authority. In the context of the forthcoming legislation, I wish to ensure that some form of consistency will be obtained across all local authorities. It is sometimes difficult to pinpoint from where these differences originate. One could state that local authorities operate in different ways and that they possess a certain level of autonomy. In my view, however, it does not make sense when one can just cross a border and see the difference in planning immediately. There is a value, of course, in pre-application consultations but one of the difficulties is that sometimes people are under the impression that once they go into pre-planning, the matter is sorted, done and dusted. That does not necessarily follow. One must still go through the planning process.

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