Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
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To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he is open to local authority managers to make an executive decision in relation to the exclusion of councillors and Oireachtas members from attending with constituents or their agents at formal or indeed informal pre planning meetings; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42228/12]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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Section 247 of the Planning and Development Act 2000 provides that a person intending to apply for planning permission may seek the agreement of the planning authority to pre-application consultations, which agreement must not be unreasonably withheld.

The Department’s Development Management Guidelines (June 2007) state that requests for both formal section 247 pre-application consultations and other less formal consultations should be facilitated by the planning authority as soon as feasible.

Section 247 makes no reference to the matter of anyone accompanying the potential planning applicant to the consultation: the Guidelines envisage that agents would attend such meetings.

Where the potential applicant requests that persons other than, or in addition to, his/her agent accompany him/her to a pre-planning consultation, it is a matter for the relevant planning authority to decide whether it is appropriate to accede to such a request, having regard to the effective conduct of the consultation, the number of persons concerned, limitations of time and space and any other relevant considerations.