My Department is a statutory consultee to the local authority development planning process and participates actively in the process. The Planning and Building Unit of my Department examines the draft development plans for each local authority to assess the implications in terms of projected school requirements. My Department then makes a submission at draft plan stage, identifying likely educational requirements and requesting appropriate zoning provision to cater for the projected needs of the particular settlements in a local authority. At present, local authorities are actively in the process of aligning their development plans to be consistent with the National Planning Framework and my Department is engaging with all draft plans in order to ensure that land is zoned appropriately to meet projected educational requirements.