The Cork County Development Plan 2022 – 2028 was made by the elected members of Cork County Council on 25th April 2022. In accordance with section 31AM(6) of the Planning and Development Act 2000 (as amended) (the Act) the Chief Executive of Cork County Council issued a notice to the Office of the Planning Regulator (OPR) informing the Office of where the planning authority had decided not to comply with recommendations made in the relevant report of the Office.
The Office considered this notice and issued a notice under section 31AM(8) of the Act to me, as Minister responsible, on 20th May 2022 recommending that I exercise my function to take such steps to ensure that the plan sets out an overall strategy for the proper planning and sustainable development.
Minister O’Brien subsequently issued the notice of intention to direct to the Chief Executive of Cork County Council on 3rd June 2022.
The subsequent process entailed the following steps:
- A 2 week public consultation began on the draft Direction on 17th June which was open for submissions up to and including July 1st .
- No later than 4 weeks after the expiry of consultation period, the Chief Executive prepared a report on submissions received, which was submitted to the elected members, the Office and to me, as Minister responsible.
- The OPR then considered the Chief Executive’s report and submissions received and further recommended to me that the final Direction be issued on the Cork County Development Plan 2022 – 2028.
Following consideration of the OPR’s recommendation, the Section 31 Ministerial Direction process on the Cork County Development Plan 2022-2028 concluded on 28th September 2022, when I issued a final Direction on the Plan to the Chief Executive of Cork County Council, pursuant to section 31 of the Act (a copy is available at gov.ie/en/publication/92562-cork-county-development-2022-2028/) The Direction did not issue on two of the recommendations made by the OPR relating to retail planning policy. When issuing this Final Direction, I also prepared and submitted a statement of reasons (SoR) to both Houses of the Oireachtas as to why I did not agree with two of the recommendations of the OPR. This statement of reasons (available here: assets.gov.ie/236951/455c3fa3-452d-43b1-bfdc-f2200812ede3.pdf ) outlines the circumstances and reasons why I did not proceed with those two recommendations.
As the Section 31 process relating to the Cork County Development Plan 2022-2028 has now concluded, I shall be making no further comment on the matter.
