Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will be brief. I personally thank Killian Woods, who I failed to acknowledge earlier. He made an excellent submission and we should send it on to the Department and An Bord Pleanála because I think they would be interested in what he has to say. He supports it with a lot of documentation so I commend him on that.

I have a question for Mr. Sheridan. The orderly wind-down is now of concern. As I said earlier, the focus now must be on improving, supporting and resourcing the local planning system in terms of its staff, planners, administrators, and even its city and county councillors is now critical. They feel under enormous pressure and they have been involved in much of this work but are not quite sure how they are going to prepare for this orderly wind-down. It is a challenge. The representatives from the Department might convey this to their officials. There must be a focus on the upskilling, training and resources these departments need. They are creaking at the seams. They are under enormous pressure and that must be acknowledged and addressed.

I thank An Bord Pleanála because I like to think I learn from every experience and one thing I have taken away from today is that it comes in for a lot of backlash. The Legislature and politicians make the law and somehow it is always hung back on An Bord Pleánala. That is something I am going to take away from this meeting because we can resolve many of these issues within the Houses of the Oireachtas.

The final thing I am taking away from today is that specific local objectives, SLOs, or zoning provisions are critical to all of the councils and the 31 local authorities that are now engaging in county development plans. I will be writing to each of them today to tell them to wise up and look at their zoning objectives because if they focus on strong zoning objectives they can have a strong say in the outcomes for planning and development within their areas. I thank everyone who has participated today and thank them for attending.