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Minister for the Environment, Heritage
and Local Government (Mr. Roche):
Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government (Mr. Roche):
Ensuring openness, probity, fairness and efficiency in the operation of
the planning system is an ongoing and key challenge key challenge.
Zoning of land by a planning authority is effected as part of the making
of a development plan. Section 10 of the Planning and Development Act
2000 states that a development plan shall include objectives for “the
zoning of land for particular purposes (whether residential, commercial,
industrial, agricultural, recreational, as open space or otherwise, or
as a mixture of those uses), where and to such an extent as the proper
planning and sustainable development of the area, in the opinion of the
planning authority, required the uses to be indicated”. The process of
making or varying a development plan is also set out in the 2000 Act and
requires, inter alia, extensive public consultation and adoption of the
development plan or variation by the elected members.
Persons applying for planning permission must state their application
what interest they hold in the land in question or include the consent
of the landowner. Planning permissions are given for specific
development proposals on specified sites in the context of the proper
planning and sustainable development of the area, irrespective of the
land’s ownership.
At present, land purchase options may be registered voluntarily.
However, the All-Party Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution, in its
Ninth Progress Report — Private Property, recommended that the existence
of options should be included in the categories of transactions to be
revealed publicly as a measure to achieve transparency in property
markets generally. Consideration is being given to approaches dealing
with registration of land options in that context. |
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