Ms Josephine Henry:

I refer to planning, the master plan, expectations and a clear set of policies for firms coming in. One of the things we found when the DDDA fell and everything happened was that firms continued to say that the authority was providing community gain. The community gain it generally meant was a Christmas party or something like that. A clear structure is needed for the firms coming in whether they are small local businesses or multinationals. They need to know what are the policies and expectations when they come into the area. Internationally, companies are generally handed a handbook welcoming them to the area, for example, the Sydney docklands in Australia, and the levies, plans and what they have to do are outlined. It is not about providing a Christmas party for the local old people. This emerged during the planning hearings clearly and it was in the planner's report. An Bord Pleanála does not publish its commentary on each decision but the planner's report clearly said those issues were ultra viresin respect of the planning Acts. It can only comment on the things written into the Act in the SDZs and there will be multiple SDZs. Unless there is a clear structure, all the issues we are talking about will fall between stools.