Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The amendment will enable the local community development committee, LCDC, to be represented on the new economic development and enterprise strategic policy committee. Separately, through Seanad amendment No. 63, I will delete the requirement that the LCDC be represented on the corporate policy group. There was a concern on the part of elected members that an external member or an unelected member could be on this group and, therefore, I am responding to those concerns and deleting that requirement. In lieu, this amendment provides that the guidelines governing membership of the strategic policy committees will be amended to enable the Minister to require the LCDC to be represented on the economic development and enterprise strategic policy committee. In the normal course, the guidelines will provide that this representative will be chairperson of the LCDC but if the chairperson is an official of the local authority, the representative will be another nominee of the LCDC.

Amendment No. 59 is a drafting amendment to correct the title of the strategy to Regional Spatial and Economic Strategy. The word "regional" was inadvertently omitted from the Bill as agreed by the House previously.

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