Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour)

Unquestionably, planning departments in recent years were being crisis driven, such was the volume of applications. It is a fact that the application processes have slowed significantly but there is a culture pertaining from that period affecting local people and residents in terms of access to planning departments. As Deputy Jim O'Keeffe can confirm, at one time the public could not telephone the planning department of Cork County Council outside a couple of hours per week. The department would take calls only during those times. I am concerned that the culture that developed in this period, whether it was right or wrong, would continue in the future.

As the Minister will have witnessed, both as a public representative and a member of a local authority, different approaches are taken by different local authorities at the operational end with regard to access, consultation and public recourse, despite the legislation. An opportunity has been presented to us now. The Minister should produce a code of practice or guidelines on consultation processes. Certainly, one-stop-shops could be set up within council departments where staff could be redeployed to provide more customer-driven and customer-focused approaches such as pre-planning consultations and advising residents' groups. Is this something of which the Minister has taken cognisance and does he envisage some type of standard being put in place regarding the operational end of the process, as opposed to the legislation?

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