The retail partner in the Dublin office of Lambert Smith Hampton, Fintan Tierney, has been nominated to the panel which is to carry out a study of retail planning and to prepare draft guidelines for the Minister for the Environment and Local Government.

In the meantime, the Minister has blocked all stores with more than 32,000 sq ft until new guidelines are introduced. The draft guidelines are to be published early in the new year. The panel reviewing the planning guidelines also includes Roger Tym & Partner, planners and development economists, and Jonathan Blackwell Associates.