Vol. 571 No. 1
1268 Mr. Ring asked the Minister for the Environment Heritage and Local Government the number of county development plans which have been adopted; and number which have been sent back to the councils again due to the fact his Department are dissatisfied with them. [20071/03]
Under section 9 of the Planning and Development Act 2000, every planning authority is required to make a development plan every six years, setting out an overall strategy for the proper planning and sus tainable development of its area. Planning authorities have been adopting development plans on a rolling basis since the coming into force of the Local Government (Planning and Development) Act 1963 in 1964. Where a draft development plan is prepared under the Act, the planning authority is required to send notice and a copy of the draft development plan to the Minister and certain other prescribed authorities and bodies. Any observations on the draft development plan given to the planning authority by my Department must be taken into consideration before the plan is adopted and my Department would be in correspondence with a number of planning authorities on their development plan at any given time.
