Mr. Nick Killian:

One point that came clearly through the planning advisory forum related to the lack of understanding among a lot of national bodies in regard to the role of the councillor. In fact, at one meeting, I raised the fact that at the end of the day, we are responsible for the county development plan, but that was not fully understood by everybody. Indeed, the roles of the CCMA or the manager in the county development plan were not fully understood. For example, many of us in this room are councillors, and we have all gone through the development plan process over recent years. We were dealing with census figures back to 2016, yet we were making decisions on figures that were given to us.

Whatever becomes of this Bill, it has to be relevant when a plan is being made, and that is why I am so concerned about the idea of a five-year review. Who would have foreseen this time last year all the life changes, planning changes and housing needs changes that have happened? We are all concerned about the housing crisis, the lack of development and the lack of provision of housing but, please God, within the next five years, that will have abated insofar as it can. We need relevant information.

One of our other concerns is that we feel there is a planning regulation overreach when it comes to development plans. There is concern among our members about the overreach, not least by the OPR in regard to the decisions we make at local level because we know our areas. One point that has not been mentioned is that rural Ireland is out there. It is not all about urban Ireland but also about rural Ireland and the effects of that development plan on, say, the small clochán in Donegal or the node in a small village.