Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Green Party)

Unlike my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Cuffe, I would not get too hung up about disarray between Opposition parties because it is clear, for example, that the Labour Party and Fine Gael will have to negotiate a programme for Government. If the Labour Party were to go into government with the Green Party, we would have many more similarities than with Fine Gael but, as I have said in previous statements, it is all about numbers.

I am intrigued that Deputy Bannon is holding the fort for the Fine Gael Bench on environmental issues. That is quite apt because the proposal to delete this section - it was not tabled by Deputy Bannon but by Deputy Hogan - is absolutely bonkers. There would be sense in deleting this section if the Fine Gael Deputies had succeeded in having their previous amendments passed, but given that they were not accepted, the proposal to delete this section is illogical. I refer in particular to section 20(1B)(b), which states: "if applicable, that the planning authority has formed the opinion that it is not possible, because of the nature and characteristics of the area or part of the area of the development plan, to implement certain policies and objectives of the Minister contained in the guidelines when considering the application of those policies in the area or part of the area of the draft development plan or the development plan and shall give reasons for the forming of the opinion and why the policies and objectives of the Minister have not been so implemented."

Deleting the section would go against everything Deputy Crawford has been saying in terms of specific local instances where exceptions may need to be made and where people on the ground may have that specialist knowledge. Retaining this section means that the local authority members and the planners can plead a special case to the Minister. I have made previous arguments as to why the Minister should have those overarching powers. Pleading a special cases means that in some circumstances there may be some wiggle room for manoeuvre to meet those local circumstances.

Deputy Bannon on the other hand suggests that the deletion of this section would strengthen local democracy. If anything, it would lead to more conflict between the Minister of the day and the local authorities. Given that the guidelines are in place to strengthen local democracy and for local authority members to have recourse to them, deleting this section would make the link between the developer and business donations to politicians a live issue at least until the point at which we would get rid of this in the programme for Government.

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