Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The development plan is supposed to be made in a democratic way by elected representatives.

If I missed any previous explanation as to why section 51 has been put in and the rationale for involving the Office of the Planning Regulator at this early and formative stage of the development plan, apologies, but could the Minister of State tell me why the Government is doing this? It does smack of distrust, essentially, of local democracy and of the need to centralise power at an early stage and limit what the democratically elected councillors might do or decide in developing a development plan. What is the rationale for doing this and making this change? Why, given that this is being done, would we not have the check and balance at least of having the councillors involved in this early consultation?