The recommendations of the report of the Industrial Policy Review Group cover a broad spectrum of policies directly or indirectly related to industrial policy and many of them, therefore, relate to a number of Government Departments. In so far as specific individual recommendations fall mainly within the purview of my Department, the position is as follows—
Recommendation
Recourse to the courts in planning cases should be by way of judicial review.
The Local Government (Planning and Development) Act, 1992, enacted in July 1992, provides for this.
Recommendation
Provision should be made for adequate co-ordination and integration between the licensing procedures under the proposed Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the planning process to avoid confusion and the timing of decisions under any separate procedures should be dovetailed.
Amendments were made to the Environmental Protection Agency Act, 1992, during its passage through the Oireachtas so as to make the Agency the sole authority for considering the environmental pollution aspects of those classes of activity for which a licence is required from the agency.
Recommendation