Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent)
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551. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government his views that the development management guidelines of 2007, the intention and spirit of which seems to be to avoid excessive and unnecessary invalidations, should be consistently applied and regarded as best practice by local authorities. [39526/15]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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Local authorities are, subject to law, independent in the performance of their functions. In this connection, section 28 of the Pl anning and Development Act 2000 requires planning authorities to have regard , in discharging their functions, to Development Management Guidelines issued by the Minister . The Guidelines are intended to assist authorities in adhering to statutory requirements and providing a high quality of service to users of the planning process , and include example s of best practice by individual authorities in relation to particular functions.

Chapter 3 of the Guidelines advises authorities to take a reasonable approach towards validation of planning applications and, in this context, refers to the need for common sense in ruling on minor errors in the text of site notices, etc.

Updated guidance will be prepared for planning authorities on invalid planning applications as part of a general review of the Guidelines that is currently under way.