Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I will finish my point, if I may. I thank the Chair. I will give one concrete example, but not Charlestown. Up the road from Charlestown is IKEA, which is in Ballymun but in Fingal County Council's area. When IKEA opened, the rates were worth so much to Fingal County Council that the rates for all ratepayers and businesses in Fingal were cut by 10%, the biggest rate decrease that council has ever done, and probably the biggest rate decrease in the history of any local authority in the country, I would imagine. I do not know for sure. The rates that came in from that one commercial ratepayer were such as a windfall for that council. That, I think, shows what is at play here for local authorities, if they are looking to get rates or to zone or facilitate developments on the borders of neighbouring local authorities. There is a risk - notwithstanding what the Minister of State is saying about national planning policy and regional plans - that for some local authorities, there could be a race to the bottom and the lowest common denominator in terms of standards, within what is allowable in national and regional policy. That is the concern I have about this, that there is so much scope in "insofar as is practicable" while there is an overriding interest in maximising rates income. Let us be honest, for a lot of local authorities, of course that is going to be a very high priority for them. Their rates income is their main source of income, so maximising that is a huge imperative for a lot of local authorities, if not all. That can impact on planning and good planning outcomes.