Mr. Henk van der Kamp:

Ms Hughes has asked me to respond to the Senator Keane's question, although I do so not wearing my IPI hat. The reason for that conclusion in the report was based on the distinction between the preferred preparation of a draft plan and the making of a plan. The making of the plan is the function of the local authority. The preparation of the plan should be undertaken by the local authority personnel but when this is not possible it may be pragmatic to have consultancy provided. Effectively, the conclusion was that there is no basic reason that cannot be provided by a developer on behalf of the authority. However, as I said, the making of the development plan is the function of the local authority.

On the question regarding balanced regional development and the national spatial strategy, as an institute we believe this is a matter of choice. Planning is about making choices and that is often difficult. However, it is the reality. To make the gateway cities work in any spatial strategy there must be consistency and a concentration of resources in those areas and on development. Looking back over the national spatial strategy, that was not always done in a consistent manner, which would have weakened the strategy somewhat. Any future spatial strategy should anticipate those difficulties and build into it a framework to ensure that is addressed. As stated earlier in our submission, we believe a national spatial strategy should not be solely about gateway cities and towns rather it should also be about the use of different parts of the country for different types of use. This ties in with the comment in relation to the food versus biomass issue. Again, this about choice. We have so many acres of land and must make choices about how we use it. This is a very good example of the link between sectoral planning and spatial planning. The Green Paper on Energy addresses the issue of whether biomass should be used for energy purposes. That will have spatial consequences. It is a sectoral decision with spatial consequences. I believe a national spatial strategy will also have to take a view on this because it affects counties like Mayo and other parts of Ireland. It is ultimately a balancing of the interests of agriculture, food production, the benefits that biomass can bring to our energy palette. It is important these issues are addressed in a national spatial strategy, which is tied in with the sectoral strategy one energy. That is an example of how the sectoral and spatial should interact.