Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will not take up too much time. I support the amendments. They are eminently sensible. If I am not mistaken, when we dealt with a similar Bill before Christmas, similar issues were raised. The explanation from the Minister at the time as to why he was not willing to accept them did not seem to be credible, so I would be interested to hear the outline of the Minister of State, Deputy English, today.

I will make two points to emphasise what Deputy Ryan has said. The Clonburris strategic development zone is in my constituency. One of the big problems with it, both in its previous incarnation and the big challenges today, is the integration of residential, planning, amenities and transport. Having this included in the functions of the planning regulator creates another opportunity for greater levels of interaction between those different key elements of our planning system. I can see no reason not to include it. If the Minister is not supporting it, I am interested to hear the reason, although I hope he will support it. At a very local level I hear residents complaining all the time about how planning developments get to go ahead without adequate road infrastructure. I know that is not specifically what this is dealing with, but it is the same set of issues, and on that basis I am more than happy to support it.

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