Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)
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Question 543: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the way in which all areas of county and local development plan objectives are monitored, assessed and acted on in the interests of proper planning and development; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26382/05]

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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Each planning authority is required under the provisions of the Planning and Development Act 2000 to make a development plan every six years. Section 15 of the Act provides that it is the duty of a planning authority to take such steps within its powers as may be necessary for securing the objectives of the development plan. It also provides that, no more than two years after the making of a development plan, the manager of a planning authority shall give a report to the members of the planning authority on the progress achieved in securing the objectives of the development plan.

Not later than four years after the making of a development plan each planning authority is required to initiate the process of reviewing its existing development plan and to prepare a new development plan for its area. A planning authority may also, for stated reasons, make a variation of the development plan which for the time being is in force. The foregoing provisions apply only to development plans.

I propose in the near future to publish, for consultation, draft guidelines on development plans for planning authorities. It is intended in these guidelines to deal specifically with the issue of monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of the objectives and policies set out in development plans and to provide advice to planning authorities on the necessary information and criteria against which the effectiveness of plans can be evaluated in terms of achieving their stated aims.