James Bannon (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister, Deputy Roche, and his officials to the House. I welcome his off-the-cuff remarks in regard to one-off housing in rural areas. It was a breath of fresh air compared to what we heard during the past four or five years or more. Since the Government took office many wild decisions have been taken in the area of planning. Hopefully, the Minister will bring more realism to the planning system.

Arising from my experience as a local public representative for the past 19 years, I wish to make a few comments which I hope will be of interest to the Minister and his officials and might stimulate a debate on how to deal with local public representatives. Under the Planning and Development Act 1963 public representatives have three main objectives, namely, the reshaping and modernisation of our cities, towns and countryside to meet the demands of traffic and the growing economy; the identification and development of centres of economic and social growth; and the preservation and improvement of amenities, an issue that has been neglected by local authorities due to a shortage of funding over many years.

This development is designed to ensure that life is comfortable, enjoyable and profitable. There is nothing wrong with the word "profitable" in today's world but it has been blackguarded by those in the business of development, building and so on. A small percentage of people have witnessed irregularities. The jury is still out and I hope those involved will be prosecuted. The majority of those in the development business are good, honest, decent, hard-working people and make a contribution to the economy, something we should all recognise.

The central feature of this Act is the county development plan, to which the Minister referred. Meetings dealing with the preparation of county development plans and the budget are some of the more important for public representatives. This is where we all need to be tuned in, particularly councillors. Each county council was required, in its role as a planning authority, to prepare a development plan within three years of October 1964. The 1963 Act required that this plan be reviewed at least once every five years and more often if necessary. It is also important that we do not wait to review any major new developments until a new plan is introduced.

Under the Planning and Development Act 2000, each planning authority is obliged to prepare a development plan for its functional area every six years. It is important to note that the making of a development plan is a function reserved for the elected members of local authorities. In that context, I was disappointed that county development plans did not get a special heading in the booklet, Local Government and the Elected Member 2004, recently published by the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. It is such an important matter that it should have had its own heading. However, I know it does not because I studied the booklet in detail at 3 o'clock this morning.