Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour)
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Question 980: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government his views, in the interests of equity and in the public interest and considering the facilitation of preplanning meetings between developers and planners, on legislating for a reciprocal arrangement enabling representative groups to meet with planners during the submission period; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11930/08]

John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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Under the Planning and Development Acts 2000-2006, any person or body is entitled to participate in the planning process; the process provides for third party participation at all stages i.e. forward planning, development management, and appeal stages. Ireland is one of the few EU Member States to have a third party appeal system.

With regard to planning applications for strategic infrastructure developments, there is also a provision for pre-application consultation with the public under Section 37B(1) of the Planning and Development (Strategic Infrastructure) Act 2006. This provides for mandatory pre-application consultation between a prospective applicant and An Bord Pleanála. In this regard, regulations made under the act give the Board powers to require a prospective applicant to undertake a full public pre-application consultation. In practical terms this enables the Board, under article 210 of the Planning and Development Regulations 2006, to oblige a prospective applicant to do one or more of the following in advance of making an application proper: erect site notices; provide a specific place or a specific website to make available the application, environmental impact statement and any other relevant documentation for inspection or purchase at a fee not exceeding the reasonable cost of making a copy; use national or local media; and hold public meetings.

In relation to the specific issue raised in the question the Planning and Development Acts provide that representative groups can make third party submissions and appeals on applications for development.

I do not think it would be either appropriate or practical for pre-application consultations to become a mandatory requirement for all prospective developments. The provisions in relation to pre-application consultations between planning authorities and prospective applicants already contained in Section 247 of the Planning and Development Act 2000, combined with the very extensive public notification and participation provisions set out under planning legislation provide a robust framework for addressing the concerns raised. There is nothing preventing discussions between a planning authority and representative groups at a pre-planning stage. I have no proposals, therefore, to amend the existing legislation.

Emmet Stagg (Kildare North, Labour)
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Question 981: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government his views on making available for public viewing all unauthorised development files held by planning authorities, similar to such files held by the Environmental Protection Agency; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11936/08]

John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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The Planning and Development Act 2000 requires that planning authorities must enter on the planning register the particulars of any warning letter issued, the complete decision made on whether to issue an enforcement notice and particulars of any enforcement notice issued. My Department's Development Management Guidelines for Planning Authorities, published in June 2007, available on my Department's website at www.environ.ie, state that all documentation relating to enforcement actions (correspondence, planner's report to the Manager, Manager's decisions, representations made under section 152 of the Planning and Development Act 2000, warning letters, enforcement notices, notes on site visits, etc.) should be readily available to all parties directly involved and to the general public, except: where this could prejudice a possible court action; or where this would reveal the identity of complainants (in order to prevent possible intimidation).