Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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709. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if taking photography in a range of locations near a development site to facilitate the preparation of photomontages for visual impact assessment while preparing a file for planning submission or in response to a request for further information issued by a planning authority under the Planning and Development Acts that is in relation to a planning application which has already been made is an essential service under the restrictions now in place under level 5 of the Plan for Living with COVID-19 (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18800/21]

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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The question is seeking an interpretation of the provisions of the Health Act 1947 (Section 31A - Temporary Restrictions) (Covid-19) (No. 10) Regulations 2020, specifically article 4(2)(a)(ii) of these Regulations.

In this regard, article 4(1) of the Regulations provides that an applicable person shall not leave his or her place of residence without reasonable excuse. Article 4(2) provides that such reasonable excuse includes an applicable person leaving his or her place of residence in order to "work, comply with a contract of employment or contract for services, or otherwise engage in work or employment where ... in all the circumstances, it is not practicable to so work, comply or engage in the person’s place of residence".

Interpretation of legislation is not one in which I, in my role as Minister of State with responsibility for Local Government and Planning, have any statutory function and is one which is a matter for the Courts.