17 Deputy Róisín Shortall asked the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government his plans to carry out a review of the retail planning guidelines; the processes to be put in place to carry out the review; the consultation that will be undertaken and the timeframe; when the review is completed the way he plans to proceed thereafter; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44394/10]

My Department is currently reviewing the Retail Planning Guidelines which were originally published in 2001 and updated in 2005.

An Issues Paper, which set out high-level and strategic issues for retail planning, was published in June 2010 to provide an opportunity for stakeholders and interested parties to assist in identifying key issues to be considered in the context of preparing and drafting revised guidelines. Almost 200 submissions were received through this consultation process and the issues raised in these submissions are currently being examined in drafting the updated guidelines.

It is intended that revised draft guidelines will be published for public consultation early next year, thus affording stakeholders and interested parties a further opportunity to input into the policy formulation process before the statutory guidelines are finalised in mid-2011.