Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The main purpose of this Bill is to give a basis to one of the recommendations of the Mahon tribunal report, namely, that the Minister should have the power to prescribe expressly specific planning policy requirements to be applied by local authorities in their county development plans.

The Fianna Fáil Party welcomes this change to planning powers.

I will use this opportunity to briefly revisit some of the recommendations made by the Mahon tribunal on reform of the planning system.

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