Vol. 515 No. 3
70 Ms McManus asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government the changes, if any, he will introduce in planning laws or regulations arising from the report of the Cabinet committee on infrastructural developments, including public-private partnerships; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5977/00]
The Government, on 15 February, accepted the recommendations of the cabinet committee on infrastructural development on an integrated package of changes to the existing statutory approval and judicial review processes. In addition to the major changes already included in the Planning and Development Bill, 1999, to underpin the accelerated delivery of infrastructure under the national development plan, I will bring forward amendments on Committee Stage of the Bill to implement those elements of recommendations which are relevant to the planning code. These include: providing that ministerial directions can be given to An Bord Pleanála to prioritise specific areas of major infrastructural investment within its work programme; removing the statutory prohibition on developing a road scheme pending the outcome of all legal proceedings, including judicial review; requiring the High Court should deal as expeditiously as possible, consistent with the administration of justice, with judicial review of significant planning and infrastructure cases; requiring that applicants for judicial review should have previously shown an interest in the case in respect of which judicial review is sought, unless there is good and sufficient reason why he or she did not do so; requiring that any person seeking to extend the exceptions to the eight week time limit for seeking judicial review of a decision of An Bord Pleanála should have to prove the existence of exceptional circumstances.
It was also agreed that I would urgently address with my colleague, the Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources, the legal and organisational implications of the establishment of a single decision making process for infrastructural projects affecting the foreshore. Contacts on this issue are ongoing between our two Departments and, depending on the outcome, may result in further amendments to the Planning and Development Bill.
