Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The critical thing out of this is that it will come to a point where development plans will align with each other. The kick-off time periods will be the same around the country, so there will be co-ordination between planners in each local authority as they are going through their development plan process. It is important to have that flexibility there. Plus, it is the oversight. You go to a higher level at the regional planning level, and then the national planning framework to ensure that there is co-ordination. The flexibility is really there to ensure that, yes, there is co-ordination, but also "insofar as is practicable" means that it allows the local authorities to collaborate.