Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I have one more quick question because I have to leave to go up to the Seanad and I will not be back. The following is for the OPR. On the ten-year county development plan process, it is only my view, and having talked to many sitting county councillors, I believe it is the view of some of them, that five or six years may be too short, and while seven is more moderate, I can understand that for proper long-term strategic planning and sustainable development, ten years is not a long time. The problem, as the witnesses will know and I would like to hear their comments on it, is that the midterm thing is a bit of a joke. I was a member of a county council for many years myself. It was a tick-box exercise that we were going to do this, this and this and we would look at the strategic local objectives or specific local objectives. Everyone just threw everything in as an SLO because it kept the old councillors happy, which is what the establishment thought. They had a bit of paper saying there was going to be a strategic piece of work done. What is the view regarding the midterm? I believe there is real scope for a strong statutory midterm review of a county development plan but it has to be much more structured. There is very little on the ground regarding buy-in and input into the midterm review. If we had a really strong midterm review of a county development plan, there is a case for ten years. I would be interested in feedback on that