Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Senator Fitzpatrick mentioned the approval process. In terms of maintenance and repairs, there are 31 local authorities in this group that are all different. With regard to funding, property tax in Dublin and other areas is treble what is levied on other areas. As Deputy Ó Broin and I have seen, it is not easy or as cut and dried as we are saying here. Every local authority is preparing its county development plan at the moment but their services differ. I welcome our consideration of the approval process, maintenance and repairs for the 31 local authorities. There are bigger issues but we must adopt a balanced approach. While I welcome this, the bigger picture is working with the local authorities, funding, maintenance, repairs, county development plans and the approval process. As has been mentioned, everything is linked to the local authorities and the Minister. That is our link. If we do not operate on a local authority basis and just deal with the Minister, we could have bigger issues.