Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will give an example because the Minister of State is right that we should always think of real life cases. Let us take the Galway ring road and hypothesise for a second. Let us imagine that between now and the local elections, the majority of people in the city of Galway are convinced of the merits of the idea that the ring road is not compatible with climate action. A majority of councillors elected to the council then seek a material alteration to their development plan and remove the ring road. This allows the Minister, with the approval of the Government, to say he is sorry and in this particular case, the ring road, based on their consultations with the business community and others, is of regional strategic importance. That is exactly what this power is for. I do not suspect that there will be a greenway in Galway but it is not beyond the realms of possibility.

This is about circumstances where central government is not happy with infrastructural provisions in development plans. It can essentially instruct the inclusion of those infrastructural plans into the development plan. Let us take the next step forward to offshore and onshore wind. Those are going to have a push and pull on these areas. To echo Deputy O'Callaghan's point, I am not saying that central government should not necessarily have that power, but where that power is to be exercised, in those exceptional circumstances, maximum transparency, accountability and democratic consent, that is, a vote of the Oireachtas, should be key.