Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I will reply to all the amendments, if that is okay. I do not accept amendment No. 41. The Bill removes the provision that currently allows the board to determine, by resolution, that a quorum for a meeting of the board for particular case types should be two. Action 14 of action plan for An Bord Pleanála recommends that the board should operate with a minimum quorum of three and that the current statutory provision be removed. In its phase 1 report into certain systems and procedures used by An Bord Pleanála in the delivery of its statutory planning functions, the Office of the Planning Regulator, OPR, also recommended that the mechanism allowing board meetings with a quorum of two persons be permanently removed. The response is the same for amendment No. 42.

Amendment No. 47 is not accepted. The minimum quorum is three, but the board already has a higher quorum for certain categories of cases.

Amendment No. 48 is not accepted. Section 37(2)(b) provides for the circumstances where An Bord Pleanála can make a decision that materially contravenes a local development plan. The planning legislative review will reinforce the position that the board will only be able to materially contravene a development plan where the plan is in conflict with matters of strategic national or regional importance clearly set out in Government policy, regional spatial and economic strategy, the national planning framework, ministerial or Government guidelines, or where there are conflicting objectives in the development plan or the objectives are not clearly stated insofar as the proposed development is concerned.

It is anticipated that, in combination with the greater reflection of the plan-led system in the legislation emanating from the planning legislative review and the alignment of the current cycle of the plans with the national planning framework and regional spatial and economic strategy, operationally, this will bring a greater alignment of plans and decisions. This also aligns with recommendation 11 of the Office of the Planning Regulator phase 1 report, which recommends that the restatement of the decision-making context for An Bord Pleanála decisions should be founded on the basis, subject to exemptions along the lines just articulated, that the decisions should be generally consistent with the relevant development plan or local area plans.