Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

That is the model for the way forward and in that regard I would make some suggestions. The first is that we would have greater notification of county development plans. Currently, they go on public display but the notification often does not reach the public. Members of the public will often come to see one as a councillor and say that he or she did not see the advertisement in the newspaper. We could have greater notification of that. Second, we could have a clearer set of criteria on rezoning - that it must be justified. The Minister of State has gone some way with that in terms of her core strategy, that it must be justified on the basis of population and to take account of whether the services are in place, is there a need for the rezoning, and such planning would not be done on flood plains.

In terms of the putting through of a material contravention, the current position is that two thirds of the council members present must vote in favour of it. I suggest that in the case of rezoning we would seek to introduce a similar system. In a council with 25 members, two thirds of the members would number 17; I am familiar with those numbers as there were 25 members on the council on which I served. I suggest that the vote of two thirds of the members of the council would be required for a rezoning. In other words, the vast bulk of councillors would have to be in favour of it and it could not be done late in the evening when half of them have gone home, as happened in Kerry County Council the other day in regard to a different matter.

In terms of the standards in public office that have been in place for about the past ten years, most of the scandals pre-date that time. We have strict standards in public office and the Standards in Public Office Commission, SIPO, with which we and councillors must comply, has been a very positive development. We have done some of the work on this area. We are setting about reforming local authorities but we must not kill them altogether and we must not kill the power of the Oireachtas. We need to be careful about that. The Minister of State might respond to me on that matter.