Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)
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Question 384: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government his views on correspondence (details supplied) regarding the needs of Ireland's retail industry; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37730/11]

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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The draft retail planning guidelines referred to are aimed at ensuring that the planning system plays a key role in ensuring competitiveness in the retail sector, advancing choice for the consumer while promoting and supporting the vitality and viability of city and town centres, contributing to a high standard of urban design, and encouraging a greater use of sustainable transport.

The draft Guidelines take into account the recommendations of a Forfe1s Study Review of the Economic Impact of the Retail Cap prepared for the Departments of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation and my Department. This Study was undertaken in 2010 as part of the terms of the EU-IMF programme of Financial Support for Ireland and presents an evidence-based robust economic analysis of the potential impact on competition and consumer prices of eliminating or relaxing the floor-space cap on retail premises.

The Forfás research clearly indicates that the previous caps on store size have not significantly deterred competition and new entrants in the retail sector. In fact, even more significantly, it found that the maximum size of store allowed has only been reached in a small number of cases indicating that the issue is not a significant one for the sector.

Notwithstanding this, considering the national and regional strategic importance of the larger cities, it was considered that the review of the guidelines should embrace a modest increase in the caps applying to these locations, bearing in mind that these include locations where a small number of stores have reached the previous maxima and that larger stores in such city contexts would not be likely to give rise to local monopolies. By retaining previous caps in less populated areas and smaller towns, the draft guidelines recognise the findings of the Forfás research which concluded that an increase in store sizes could create local monopolies in these locations which would be detrimental to competition.