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

The elected members have a key role throughout the development plan process. In many ways, it is their development plan and they are elected to produce it. In the context of local democracy, it is one of the key functions of local councillors. Section 51, which brings in the OPR before the preparation of the draft development plan begins, is significant; however, not having the elected members involved in any way at that stage is also significant. Throughout the Bill, there is centralisation of power to the Minister and the OPR. When we submit amendments to include democratically elected representatives in the early part of the process, however, we are told they should not be included. Whenever power is centralised and elected representatives are excluded from the process, it never ends well. It does not matter who the individuals starting out are or who they centralise power to; what happens is that, over time, with the centralisation of power and the lack of involvement of democratically elected representatives, sooner or later, things inevitably go wrong. That is a given. I could take up considerable time giving examples of where things have gone wrong with planning but I do not need to as everyone is aware of them. However, why design a process to centralise power and not accept our amendment, which would at least include the elected representatives in the early part of the process?