Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister and his officials. At the outset, I want to acknowledge the high quality and standard of this production. It is exceptional. I have been around a number of local authorities and spoken on this, and encouraged people. I would renew a call again today for the Minister, conscious that the public consultation process ends on 3 November, to continue the excellent promotion and the public relations efforts that marked the beginning of the process. It needs another push. It is critical to this process that local authority members feel fully engaged. That will lead me into another issue in a moment and a question in regard to the hierarchy of the plans. That is very important in terms of democracy and representation.

It is important that local authority members feel fully included in this process. I know that they are included but that must be emphasised to the elected members and the executives of the 31 local authorities because if this plan is to work and bring us to 2040, it must be embraced and supported by the various sectors but particularly by local government.

I want to acknowledge that this is an outstanding production. It is very easy to digest and understand. We will have an opportunity to contribute to it. I know that I will, as a citizen, be making a submission and that is important. The plan sets down certain standards and has a vision. It is a very good vision and it is very impressive.

In terms of the hierarchy of plans, clearly we would have county development plans and they are very important in the local process. Such plans are relatively short, covering only five or six years. There is a case to be made for pushing out the length of county development plans but perhaps this plan will take over in that regard. In terms of the hierarchy, it is important that people feel that their local process is feeding in and that the county development plans are feeding into the national planning framework. This is, effectively, the national planning framework which affects regional and local government as well as local economic bodies. It is an economic plan that will, hopefully, be sustainable into the future.

I also want to acknowledge that it recognises that there is a continued need for housing provision for people living and working in rural parts of Ireland. People seem to think that this is about centralising in the regions in places like Waterford, Limerick, Galway, Drogheda and Dublin. That must be dealt with, as the Minister has said, in terms of infrastructure and so forth but there is a very special place for rural villages and towns in this country. While there must be a different way of doing business, it is important that this message is made clear. This is not just about the big cities but also about sustainable living in small communities around the country.

I would like the Minister and his Department to focus resources on galvanising and encouraging more input into this process in the coming weeks so that we have a plan that has been widely discussed and on which there has been wide engagement. Well done, it is a great piece of work.