Mr. Patrick King:

I thank Deputy Casey. To touch on the point Ms Spillane ended with, we are concerned about geography, a subject as close to our area as one can get, being removed from the junior certificate exams. As was said, we must think more widely.

Regarding the county development plans, and picking up on, I think, Mr. O'Mahony's point about the three-dimensional perspective, it is important that the LDA can contribute to that process to ensure that it gives its perspective and challenges the local authorities to give greater depth in order that they can make informed strategic plans, which, it is hoped, can lead to innovation. We have mentioned in our submission the SDZs and how they could be a useful tool, particularly in giving the LDA a straight line such as "this is the local authorities' thinking in this area; let us move to implement it". With a commercial raison d'être, one would go for the projects with the fewest barriers and risks involved, build capacity, etc. I think the commercial point has come up several times. I believe Mr. O'Neill referred to the apartment versus the four-bed in the suburbs, but there is an externality cost. In the city one does not have to support that cost but, from the perspective of the buyer, somebody else will flip the bill, namely, the people in this room and the people of this country.

I think there is a greater scope in object 2(c), which Ms Meghen mentioned, to take a wider view on this, instead of just the positive financial return, and the holistic return on investment that is available. That would be an important aspect, whether it is urban or town sprawl we need to address. The LDA could be a positive change to this whole area. This is where one would need to look at the objects. I do not think we necessarily need to involve the LDA in small construction; rather, it needs to build communities, think about larger blocks of land and have a role in areas where there is not capacity within the local authorities or other bodies. To that end, there is an important role for the committee and others in looking at the mapping of the agencies. I was involved in the employment process in my previous work, and one thing that became quite clear was that there were a myriad of agencies doing a lot of work and it took a long time to figure out which was the right body to do what and to help because they were all at different levels. As we design a new agency, understanding HBFI, the local authorities and that mapping process quite clearly such that everybody understands what role each group plays will be essential as a prerequisite of this legislation.

I do not know if there was anything else to respond to.