Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his response. The pivotal piece is one of the first things he said, namely, giving local groups a say in local government decisions that affect their communities. I am not convinced that is what we actually see with our PPNs. I am aware the Minister of State is absolutely steeped in this sector. I imagine most of us in the House this evening have had some sort of route to market with PPNs. They can feel like a talking shop. I smile wryly looking at the language. We are having a review, then a review report, a working group, we are overseeing the development of a roadmap, then we have a draft roadmap, an independent consultant to consult more widely and that is going to make recommendations before we receive a finalised roadmap. That feels very like the PPNs in some way. I have been in this situation. There is a very long journey from somebody in a PPN group having a good idea to that idea seeing the light of day, so we need to streamline the process. If we are using PPNs for community engagement, we need to make it authentic engagement.

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