Joanna Tuffy (Dublin Mid West, Labour)

I support Deputy Bannon on this point. I raised this issue on Committee Stage. I refer to the idea that councils must have regard to regional planning guidelines, the new provisions in this Bill in that regard and the drawing up of regional planning guidelines and the national spatial strategy. I am referring to the essential point made by Deputy Bannon. Regional authorities are not directly accountable to the electorate. I also served on a regional authority and it was a talking shop; we had very little input into the matters dealt with. I was on the subcommittee that drew up the regional planning guidelines for great Dublin area and I had very little say. The way I was slotted into the procedure was very much to rubber stamp the guidelines while the officials had the edge.

Decisions about planning should rest with elected representatives because they are accountable to the electorate. If they make bad decisions, then the electorate can do something about it. The Green Party may find it a problem that people are sometimes elected again and again and it might not agree with their particular policies. However, that is democracy. That is politics and that is what it is about. The Green Party has a philosophical problem with democracy and that is not a good thing.

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