Planning Issues

Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 3 May 2012

Thursday, 3 May 2012

Ceisteanna (57)

Catherine Murphy

Ceist:

55 Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government if he intends, specifically with regard to the recommendations of the final report of the Tribunal of Inquiry into Certain Planning Matters and Payments, Mahon tribunal, to appoint a politically independent planning regulator to place the national development plan and the national spatial strategy on a statutory footing to ensure that local authority councillors are required to explain their reasoning when directing county managers to grant planning applications against the advice of professional planners; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22165/12]

Freagraí scríofa

Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government (Deputy Jan O’Sullivan)

The Government considered the findings of the Final Report of the Mahon Tribunal at its meeting on 27 March and agreed that the relevant Government Departments, working with associated agencies under their aegis, as appropriate, should consider as a matter of urgency the recommendations contained in the Report and revert to my Department with proposed actions to be taken on foot of the specific recommendations and a timeframe for their implementation, to enable Minister Hogan and me to report back to Government during May. In that context, my Department is currently examining the Report's relevant recommendations, including, inter alia, the recommendation for the establishment of an independent planning regulator, with a view to developing comprehensive responses to them.