Mr. Charles Stanley-Smith:

We are involved in a couple of groups within the local authority. One would be the joint policing committee, JPC, and the other is the CIPC which are very dependent on the input of the PPNs. It is possible to see where input was provided from the PPN and is being applied. They tend to be small committees with good interaction between the members. I was the first chair of the local community development committee, LCDC, in Tipperary. That pretty much took on board the PPN view because I was the chair. It still carries on in that vein. It is a proper bottom-up organisation and it is possible to see the footprint of the PPN in that.

The national planning framework was the one that really surprised me. While it took a long time to do it, the appendix shows where each individual bit of the consultation was and where it was applied. Those preparing that report took that step which is not done very often if at all. It gives people a very strong feeling of being able to see exactly what happened to their bit of consultation, which is what people need. As Ms Clancy said, we do not want to be consulted knowing that it will end up in the bin. If we can see it has actually changed a plan, we will carry on and will bring other people into the whole participation framework network because we know it is beginning to have an effect. If it is not having an effect, dragging some poor members of our community into yet another consultation, which we know is a tick-box exercise, does not do anybody any good.