Jim O'Keeffe (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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Question 40: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if, in view of the reduction in planning applications, greater emphasis should be put on pre-planning discussions and the resolution of technical and other problems in advance of applications; and if he has conveyed his views to the local authorities in this regard. [9942/09]

John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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Under section 247 of the Planning and Development Act 2000, a person who has an interest in land and who intends to make a planning application may, with the agreement of the planning authority concerned, enter into pre-application consultations in respect of the proposed development. The section also provides that the planning authority must not unreasonably withhold its consent to a request for such consultations.

In June 2007, my Department issued guidelines for planning authorities in respect of development management. These guidelines are a step-by-step guide to all stages of the planning application process and they begin with pre-application consultations. The guidelines were issued under section 28 of the Planning and Development Act 2000 and planning authorities are obliged to have regard to them in the performance of their planning functions. A copy of the guidelines is available on my Department's website.

The guidelines strongly promote the benefits of pre-application consultations, because they provide a planning applicant an opportunity to discuss the merits of a proposal for development at an early stage. They state that every effort should be made to facilitate, as far as is practicable, reasonable requests for pre-application consultations and that planning authorities should aim to facilitate such requests as soon as possible, but in any event within two to three weeks. Pre-application consultations also provide a planning authority with an opportunity to play a proactive role in guiding a project, from its inception, in accordance with proper planning and sustainable development principles.

Overall, in the region of 25,000 pre-application consultations take place annually. As the number of planning applications has fallen significantly — from 92,600 in 2006 to 64,000 in 2008 — planning authorities should be in a position to commit additional staff resources to facilitate requests for pre-planning consultations.

Jim O'Keeffe (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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Question No. 45 in my name, which was answered with Question No. 38, relates to the backlog in the planning appeals system, whereas this question relates to the beginning of the planning process. Does the Minister agree that the objective of planning is to deliver a high-quality built environment and to also encourage rather than impede development? Does he agree that all the relevant processes should be designed to achieve this objective?

Despite the changes to which he refers, does the Minister agree that considerable difficulties remain and that there is a lack of consistency among local authorities? Does he further agree that even though there are problems with regard to the pre-planning process, county managers should be going out of their way to encourage pre-planning discussions in order that, in so far as is possible, any relevant issues could be dealt with prior to an application being lodged?

I am also concerned about the validation process. Why is there an enormous difference regarding the percentage of applications declared invalid in counties Dublin, Limerick, Waterford and Galway, in which the invalidation rate is 40%, and the percentage that obtains in counties, Sligo, Wexford and Louth, in which the rate is less than 8%? Surely there is a need for the Minister to intervene in this regard. Invalidation costs applicants money and delays the process.

John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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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.

Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour)
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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?

John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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Yes, I am aware of this. The guidelines were supposed to deal with many of these issues. The guidelines are very clear and advise people of the requirements. People are told if, for example, there is a need for an environmental impact assessment, a necessity to obtain an IPCC licence or waste licence in certain cases and about the need to comply with other planning guidelines where relevant, such as retail planning guidelines, the sustainable rural housing guidelines, guidelines on child care facilities and so forth. All of this is explained to the applicants at the time. The planner must include a summary of the key points discussed at pre-application consultation and the guidelines state that the matters discussed or agreed at pre-application consultation meetings are without prejudice and cannot bind the planning authority to act in a particular manner in the determination of any subsequent application. However, where the recommendations in the report are likely to depart significantly from the matters discussed or agreed at the pre-application discussion stage, the matter should be highlighted on the application for the attention of the decision maker. This will help to ensure applicants are treated consistently and reasonably throughout the course of their application and that where there is a change of direction on the part of the planning authority, it is clear to the applicant why this is the case.

Seymour Crawford (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Is the Minister aware that some of the serious problems arise when a different planner from the one who agrees the pre-planning report deals with the case?

John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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Yes.

Seymour Crawford (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I am aware of one case where the person dealt with three different planners.

John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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Yes, absolutely.

Seymour Crawford (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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It cost a fortune. That situation must be dealt with.

Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Fine Gael)
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There are many examples of bad planning throughout the country, with many housing estates built without facilities being put in place. It is important the Minister ensures greater time and effort is put into the pre-planning decisions taken by councils. Last week, the Minister publicly acknowledged that loopholes existed whereby developers did not have to provide environmental impact statements for some developments. What changes will the Minister make to the legislation to ensure this does not happen again?

John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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In reply to Deputy Crawford, I have already acknowledged that the constant changing of planners is causing difficulty for many applicants and is costing them a great deal of money. I was speaking to people in Kinsale recently who had very unfortunate experiences. They wasted a great deal of their time, energy and money because of this. There was no consistency. There were three different planners dealing with an application. That is not fair and cannot be condoned. It is absolutely necessary to achieve consistency and I will examine ways of ensuring we do that in the new legislation.

Deputy Flanagan appears to be referring to the question of retention. We need to tighten up the system in that regard. Too often in the past people would go ahead and build — not something like a garden shed but a major building — and subsequently apply for retention. It was worth their while because the amount of money they had to pay in fines was not sufficiently punitive. We must ensure there is a disincentive for people to act in that way. There is an onus on us, as a result of European legislation, to deal with this.

Jim O'Keeffe (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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The Minister spoke about guidelines for applicants. Would he consider issuing guidelines for planners to bring it home to them that the objective is good quality planning but that the ethos should be to encourage rather than impede development?

John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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Yes, I acknowledge the Deputy's concerns. As I said to Deputy Crawford and others, that type of consistency is required across the board so people are left in no doubt. Sometimes planning is quite a subjective issue. We must move away from subjectivity so the applicants can understand where they stand and that if they do X, Y and Z, they have a chance of getting permission.