Shane Cassells (Meath West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am not. It is usually the Shinners attacking me but there is a change to the blues. The regional plans are stifling county growth, and the lack of transparency will get worse under this.

If the previous Minister responsible for planning sought to interfere in my county's development plan and stop the Facebook development in Dunboyne only to get his knuckles wrapped and back-track on that, how are we going to help the regions and the towns? We refer to growth regions. The Limerick county manager, Mr. Conn Murray, gave his opinion on the matter this week when he spelled it out for the Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, who was down the country spreading the gospel to the regions. The locals were not buying the sales pitch, however, and Mr. Murray, who is a good Navan man, told Paschal that the plan limited Limerick's ambition and that, although the approach to the development of city regions had been the most forward-thinking strategy to emerge nationally for a long time, the scripting was limiting the potential of those regions and not addressing the issue, namely, the balance with Dublin. That is what the chief executive of Limerick City and County Council told Paschal this week.

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