John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

Deputy Hogan is aware that I referred to that issue when I visited Kilkenny recently. These are sensitive issues, which is why it took so long to approve the boundary extension which I announced in March 2008. The Deputy's analysis is correct in that much of this comes down to the rates base. Cities are the driving force in developing local government and regions, as recognised in all the international literature. Strong cities must be developed. I agree with that point of view.

The metropolitan area of Limerick is governed by three separate local authorities. Many have acknowledged that this has led to incoherence in gateway leadership and regional planning. This has produced a weak regional planning framework, resulting in significant downstream opportunity costs, competition between local authorities to attract commercial retail development, resulting in inappropriate developments, as is clear from visiting the city, and relationships between local authorities that do not demonstrate the desired level of co-operation and mutual understanding to the detriment of the region as a whole. An interim report of the mid-west task force also stated we needed to address this issue as a matter of urgency. Limerick is a special case, which is why we need to address it.

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