Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I would have called for this legislation at an earlier stage, particularly in relation to Louth County Council which is a considerable way through the process of completing its development plan at this point in time. Sinn Féin councillors and other councillors in Louth have done spectacular work through a large number of online meetings. I accept, as others said, that it is far from ideal to be trying to carry out consultation by way of a hybrid mix of online meetings and meetings in the open. I believe the latter were used by Meath County Council. Given the period that we have been through, there were some difficult logistical issues. Nobody wants to see significant extensions for large numbers of development plans to such an extent that they fall out of kilter with each other and cause problems vis-à-visthe national planning framework. We must make sure that does not happen and we must provide the local authorities with the tools to enable them to achieve best practice.

We all accept that there is a need to review the planning mechanisms in this State and examine their impact on the ability of local authorities to carry out building of their own. There is still a considerable amount of red tape that needs to be addressed. We need to streamline processes and get to the point where local authorities take the lead in building the houses that we need, which is affordable by way of affordable mortgages, affordable cost rental and council housing.

It would be remiss of me not to mention a major infrastructure project in my constituency, the Narrow Water bridge, on which Louth County Council will be the lead partner. I welcome the Government's announcement of funding of €3 million through the shared island unit which will be used to deliver the tender process. However, there is a worry with regard to the significant resources that are required to actually deliver this project. Just over five years ago, a proposal was in place and €17.9 million was drawn down from indirect funding and added to moneys provided north and south of the Border. The total funding available was approximately €29 million but that was insufficient to deliver the Narrow Water bridge at that time and the project fell apart. We have had a number of false dawns on this project and we need to ensure that does not happen again. I commend the work that has been carried out on this project by Mr. Gerry Adams, Mr. Arthur Morgan and Mr. Jim Loughran and continued by Ms Sinéad Ennis and Councillor Antóin Waters. We need to make sure that local authorities, combined with every element of government and the Northern Ireland Executive, are in the right place in terms of delivering.

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