Mr. Kevin Kelly:

As a sector, we have had a good opportunity to voice our views in the context of planning legislation. I have been a member of the planning advisory forum, and there has been good feedback from the sector on a number of planning issues over a period.

On the two examples cited, to give the Senator my view, either in terms of a medical practice or any other business or, indeed, a religious service, they can have impacts on local communities, especially where they are being brought into residential areas. It is important that there is a control in place because it may work out in certain circumstances but, with traffic movements and congregations, it might cause difficulties in a residential neighbourhood. It is important to have some control there.

The other issue we talked about earlier relates to town centres. What we have to be careful about is a scenario where we allow activity that is eminently suitable to town centre locations to drift out into residential neighbourhoods. It might be effective for the practitioner himself or herself, but what we want to ensure is that we do not further erode the commercial activity in town centres and make sure that that is where those particular activities are focused. That is merely a personal opinion.