Paddy Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate the witnesses on the great research and surveys they have done on the offshore islands. Deputy Ó Cuív raised a very good point regarding four different counties having four different planning authorities. What is needed is to have an umbrella body to develop some form of policy and it could then be given to the four different local authorities, which would adopt it in their county development plans. It is the members of the local authorities who adopt county development plans. If we want something uniform right across the offshore islands, something like that would have to be stitched into the local authority plans. That would probably be a way of doing it.

I am sure a special case can be made for community groups with regard to Croí Cónaithe, particularly for the offshore islands. If there were problems getting title to properties, the local authorities could play a big role with compulsory purchase orders, CPOs, if there was agreement around that. The local authority could do a CPO and then hand the property back to the community group.