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

That all sounds very vague. The only reason I am raising this issue is that the experience of Deputy Phelan, when he was Minister of State and was trying to develop a White Paper to find a mechanism to cover this process, was that there was a great deal of subterranean disagreement and conflict. This ultimately led to that particular proposition being withdrawn by the Government, even though it had some merits.

The co-ordinated area plans are one of the good innovations in this Bill. Some conversations must be had with the regional assemblies before the Bill is finalised.

If one of the regional assemblies is raising genuine concerns in, it would really have to be the case that these would be dealt with by the time the Bill concludes its passage through the Oireachtas. I urge that the officials engage with the relevant assemblies to make sure that the concerns they raised with us as recently as January are dealt with in order that they are not worried about this aspect upon the commencement of the legislation.