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

In effect, amendment No. 476 is about implementation of the development plan. It is also a kind of a monitoring exercise. My experience as a former local councillor and that of other local councillors is that there is a lot in development plans that are passed that does not come to fruition in terms of different policies and objectives. It will not always be feasible for all of it to be implemented, particularly given the dependence on what development does or does not come forward in a lot of instances. This would still provide an opportunity, however, to look at key areas in terms of what is working well and what is not, and any issues or actions that need to be taken as a result.

I will give an example. The development plans in which I and my predecessors on the council were involved had objectives concerning mapping out public rights of way, but no progress was ever made on any of those objectives by the local authority I was on. In fact, there was resistance to it. For every development plan, therefore, we went through the process of putting in our motions saying we should map out the public rights of way, but then it never happened. This proposal would provide an opportunity for elected members to say the process was not working well in respect of an important objective in the development plan that had been discussed at length and democratically voted on, but on which there was no progress being made. This would provide an opportunity for people to raise these kinds of issues.