Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 18 April 2012
852 Deputy Luke ’Ming’ Flanagan asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government if he will immediately move to halt the excavation of sand and gravel from the Esker at Raheenmore, Tyrrellspass, County Westmeath (details supplied); if he will explain the reason Westmeath County Council has failed to stop this activity; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18504/12]
View answerUnder section 30 of the Planning and Development Acts 2000-2011, I am, as Minister, specifically precluded from exercising any power or control in relation to any particular case, including an enforcement matter, with which a planning authority or An Bord Pleanála is or may be concerned.
It is the responsibility of planning authorities to administer the development management process within their area, to provide for proper enforcement of planning control and to take all appropriate steps to ensure that development takes place in compliance with national and EU law. Enforcement of planning control for unauthorised development is a matter for the planning authority, which can take action where a development requiring planning permission has not obtained this permission, or where permission has not been complied with. The implementation of the law in individual cases is a matter for the planning authority and ultimately for the courts in any case coming before them.
Planning authorities have substantial enforcement powers and obligations under the legislation. A planning authority may issue an enforcement notice, non-compliance with which is an offence, in connection with unauthorised development (which includes failure to comply with planning conditions) requiring such steps as the authority considers necessary to be taken within a specified period. If an enforcement notice is not complied with the planning authority may itself take the specified steps and recover the expense incurred in doing so. A planning authority may seek a court order requiring any particular action to be done or not to be done. A planning authority may also refuse permission to any developer who has substantially failed to comply with a previous planning permission.
The Planning Acts also place clear statutory obligations on planning authorities in relation to unauthorised development. A planning authority must issue a warning letter in relation to written complaints regarding unauthorised development or other unauthorised development it becomes aware of (except in the case of trivial or minor development). The planning authority must then carry out an investigation and where it establishes, following such an investigation, that unauthorised development (other than development that is of a trivial or minor nature) has been or is being carried out, and the person who has carried out or is carrying out the development has not proceeded to remedy the position, the planning authority must issue an enforcement notice or make an application for a court order unless there are compelling reasons for not doing so.
