Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)

On Committee Stage in response to an Opposition amendment submitted by Senator McCarthy and supported by Senator Bannon, I said I would consider amending the Bill to specify that the board shall consider the planning authority's report to it and take into account any recommendations by the elected members. It was always the intention that this would be the case.

As I said in my Second Stage contribution, one of the unusual features of this Bill is that we are returning to a situation that has not pertained since 1963 in giving councillors, the elected representatives of the people, a statutory right to have their voice heard.

However, I have decided that the explicit inclusion of the report and recommendations in the list of matters to be considered by the board in making a determination is appropriate and I take this opportunity to do so. It underlines the importance I attach to the views of the authority and, in particular, the views of elected representatives being taken on board as part of the deliberations.

The two main Opposition parties would be strongly supportive of this view. That argument was made by Senators McCarthy and Bannon. I am pleased to propose this amendment in response to the cogent argument made by Senator Bannon and in response to my ethos, which is to give a real role to local authority members to make their expressions and will heard.