Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I would like the Minister to respond to my question on planning authorities. Does a planning authority comprise the officials, the councillors or a combination of both?

The reporting of the proceedings of regional assemblies to local authorities could be provided for by way of an amendment on Committee Stage. I know that in my local authority area there was a report once every quarter. That was very useful. It should be done because there is always some plan or other being decided on at any given time.

It is very important to get this section right, as we cannot do what we did before. What was done in the past led to scenarios where we had to pick up the pieces such as in ghost estates and land in inappropriate locations being zoned, as if it did not have a cost to society. Such zoning had a very dramatic cost in terms of servicing land for development, the provision of water and wastewater services, roads, public transport and social services and so on. The composition of the boards of regional authorities matters, as it has major significance in decision making. Because of the way it was handled in my local authority area - I do not think it was too different from the way it was done in other areas - some of us who were in favour of strategic planning were branded as the "NIMBYs" or the "anti-crowd", whereas much of what some of us were saying had a great deal of merit. If it had been replicated, perhaps we might not have ended up with the disaster that happened. The composition of regional assemblies matters if we do not want to find ourselves in the same position. I do not understand the level of resistance to electing individuals to take that responsibility. It produces a good range of checks. We are talking about three regional assemblies which must dovetail with the local authorities. People could put themselves forward in both elections and one could find a mechanism for them to do this. I accept that the Minister is looking to find a better balance. If he is not going to agree to hold separate elections to the regional assemblies, it is better that he seek to achieve a more proportionate balance. The regional assemblies will be of critical importance to the balanced and sustainable development of the country.