Town and Regional Planning Act, 1934

Approval of planning schemes by the Minister.

29.—(1) When a planning authority has decided under this Act to make a planning scheme, such authority shall with all convenient speed give effect to such decision and make a planning scheme in accordance therewith and shall submit such scheme to the Minister for his approval.

(2) When a planning scheme is submitted by a planning authority to the Minister for his approval, the Minister may by order either (as he shall think proper) approve of such scheme without modification, or require such scheme to be modified by such planning authority in such manner (whether by addition, omission, or variation) as he shall specify, or require a new scheme to be made and submitted to him by such planning authority.

(3) When the Minister requires under this section a planning scheme submitted to him to be modified by a planning authority, it shall be the duty of such planning authority to modify such scheme accordingly and to re-submit such scheme as so modified to the Minister, and thereupon sub-section (2) of this section shall apply as if such scheme were then being submitted to the Minister for the first time.

(4) When the Minister requires under this section a new planning scheme to be made and submitted to him by a planning authority, it shall be the duty of such planning authority to make with all convenient speed a new planning scheme accordingly and to submit such scheme to the Minister for his approval, and thereupon sub-section (2) of this section shall apply as if such submission were the first submission of an original scheme.

(5) When a planning authority refuses or neglects to modify a planning scheme or to make and submit a new planning scheme in accordance with a requisition in that behalf made by the Minister under this section and the Minister is satisfied, after holding a public inquiry, that such refusal or neglect was unreasonable, the Minister may himself modify such planning scheme or make such new planning scheme in accordance with such requisition and by order approve of such scheme as so modified, or made, and thereupon such planning authority shall pay to the Minister on demand such sum as the Minister shall certify to be the amount of the expenses incurred by him by reason of such refusal or neglect.

(6) Whenever the Minister makes an order under this section approving of a planning scheme, the planning authority by whom such scheme was made shall cause copies of such order and of such planning scheme to be made available for public inspection at the prescribed times and places, and shall within the prescribed time cause to be published in the Iris Oifigiúil and in such other manner as shall be prescribed notice of the making of such order and of the times and places at which copies of such order and of such planning scheme are available for public inspection.

(7) Every order made by the Minister under this section approving of a planning scheme shall be laid (together with such planning scheme) before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as may be after it is made and if a resolution annulling such order is passed by either such House within the next three weeks (omitting from the reckoning any week in which such House has not sat at all) after the week in which such order is laid before such House or notice of the making of such order is published in the Iris Oifigiúil, whichever is the later, such order shall be annulled accordingly but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done thereunder.

(8) Whenever an order approving of a planning scheme is annulled under the next preceding sub-section of this section, such planning scheme shall be deemed to have been re-submitted, on the day on which such annulment occurred, to the Minister in the form in which such scheme was approved by the said order, and thereupon this Part of this Act shall apply in respect of such planning scheme as if such re-submission were a submission under this section of such scheme to the Minister for his approval by the planning authority by whom such scheme was made and as if such submission were the first occasion on which such planning scheme was so submitted.

(9) The making and submission of a planning scheme under this section shall, in the case of the county borough of Dublin, of the borough of Dun Laoghaire, and of the county borough of Cork respectively, be a reserved function.