Mr. Gavin Lawlor:

We need to be careful here. There are significant failures in our legacy of urban planning in Ireland but a lot has been learned. In newer developments now we do see a lot stronger commitment towards improved amenities, community facilities, and the funding of that by developers through special development contributions. On the question of what needs to be done, community facilities and what is required to make a sustainable community is well understood, if one sits down, looks at it and talks to people. The problem is with delivering that. Classically, with regard to financial contributions for local authorities, there has not been, from what we can see, a significant degree of accountability whereby councils have earmarked a certain amount of money that has been generated in a certain area to be spent in that area. It goes into a centralised budget which they then spend on other priorities that might exist elsewhere in the county. Funding community facilities and ensuring that they are adequately described is essential. We classically lean on developers as being responsible for that but they are not the only ones with a responsibility here. The local authorities are responsible for it as well. As part of the development plans there should be - and there are in many cases - social infrastructure audits, where local authorities look at what is required for an urban area, what is missing, what investment is needed, what are the priorities and so on. Obviously, existing communities where there are deficits should be at the top of the list rather than new communities because-----