Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 1:

In page 3, between lines 21 and 22, to insert the following: “ ‘Community Organisation’ means an established, active and representative, residents organisation, based in the locality of the proposed development;”.

We will see how we get on. I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle and the House for agreeing to take these amendments out of order. I apologise for not getting here on time. We had a discussion on these amendments on Committee Stage. Amendment No.1 provides that a definition of a community organisation be included in section 2. Amendment No. 21, which is also being discussed in this group, is the amendment to which the community organisation relates and what happens in that regard.

As I said during the Committee Stage debate, it is important that the local communities in which developments are taking place would be able to get involved in the process at a very early stage. That would be of benefit to the developers as well as the local communities in that it would remove a lot of the misinformation that is put about in relation to developments and so on. It is important for communities to get involved at an early stage so they can see exactly what is planned and exchanges of documentation would mean they are aware of what is happening. The Minister emphasised on Committee Stage that councillors would have to be provided with information on developments and he argued that this would meet the need of communities but I do not agree. I believe that communities need to be informed as well. That is very important. The Minister has also argued that there could be some difficulty with how community organisations would be identified in local authority areas but I do not believe it is difficult for local authorities to identify community organisations that they would have lots of experience of dealing with. I do not believe it is beyond the realm of possibility that it could be done. I do not accept that as a reasonable explanation for not doing this in the legislation. Ultimately, this is the crux of the problem and there is a real need for communities to be involved at an early stage.

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