Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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521. To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht to set out the average length of time it takes for the National Parks and Wildlife Services to completely respond to local authorities with regard to their planning inputs; and the greatest length of time it has taken. [27056/16]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Minister for Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs is a statutory consultee in relation to any proposed development under consideration by a planning authority, which may have an effect on the built or natural heritage. In such cases, my Department may make observations or recommendations, as appropriate, on referrals from the relevant planning authority.

From 2011 to 2015, my Department received an average of almost 5,400 planning referrals per annum from planning authorities relating to the natural and built heritage, consisting of developments of various types and scale, as well as local area plans, regional and national development plans, strategic infrastructural developments and projects of common interest. The interaction between these projects and plans and the natural and built environment can be complex. While my Department does not collate response times for individual planning referrals, it does endeavour to respond within statutory deadlines, which generally, for a standard development, is within a period of 5 weeks from receipt by the planning authority of the planning application. After this time, the planning authority may determine the application without further notice to prescribed bodies.