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

This is quite important. I am not necessarily disagreeing with the provisions of the section. As I understand it, the co-ordinated area plans propose to do what Deputy John Paul Phelan's White Paper was unable to do. I cannot remember the name of the mechanism he proposed, but it caused untold disagreement among city and county managers and some disquiet among councillors, in particular in those areas where there had been a history of conflict and, shall we say, bad blood over the lack of co-ordinated plans.

I am not saying there will be problems, rather I thought it would be better to anticipate them. In the case of, for example, Waterford and Kilkenny, if we want a co-ordinated area plan that incorporates Ferrybank and the automatic assumption is that Waterford is the lead authority, relating to my question on subsection (10) that could cause difficulties in Kilkenny. Likewise, in respect of regional assemblies, if it is the view of Government that one or other regional assembly is to take a lead role and there is an agreement between them, how will that be resolved?

I will press the Minister of State on my questions on sections 27(10)(b), (c), (d) and (e) because I want to know against what criteria those decisions will be made. I am particularly concerned about the appointment of and the number of members on the committee. When there are two or three local authorities, an uneven number of committee members will give a numerical advantage to one or the other.

We will get into co-ordinated area plans when we get to section 70. Ultimately, the plan has to be approved by both local authorities, and I fully respect that. However, the composition of the committee will be key in determining a decision because it has to agree what goes forward to the relevant local authorities. Therefore, the composition of the committee is quite important.