Ned O'Sullivan (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Noel Ahern, to the House. In this motion I refer to the County Mayo development plan which was adopted unanimously in County Mayo on 6 May. Subsequently a ministerial directive of 11 July effectively stopped the plan in its tracks by asking Mayo County Council to vary the plan under section 31 of the Planning and Development Act 2000.

I respect Deputy John Gormley as an excellent Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and I regret that my first motion to him on the Adjournment puts me in an adversarial position to him. I must tell the Minister and the Minister of State, Deputy Noel Ahern, that the entire membership of Mayo County Council is outraged at this move. To a man, the councillors are determined to resist the directive and seek the re-instatement of the original plan. The Minister has made an unusual move that I believe has been used only twice. It places the county manager in an invidious position because he is legally obliged to carry out the instruction of his Minister and is also similarly obliged to carry out the instructions of his members. This was expressed in their unanimous adoption of the plan.

There are two separate issues at stake. First, rural depopulation in County Mayo has been well documented. Some 75% of the county is in the CLÁR area. I do not pretend to know everything about the county but I come from County Kerry where I spent 20 years as a councillor. I am sure there is little difference between the two counties. They have similar problems and experiences in trying to settle people in single rural homesteads, as is the case in all rural areas.

Obviously, this is an area of conflict. The members of Mayo County Council acted very responsibly in adopting the plan. It was done legitimately and they went through all the procedures. They did not have to accept every item put before them by the planners and this was their prerogative as elected members. In fairness to them, they were very careful about any changes they made to the original draft in order to ensure that items such as water quality, road safety, heritage sites, etc., were safeguarded. It was not as if they behaved irresponsibly. They had the local knowledge and they are the people best placed to know what is good for their county.

The second issue at stake is possibly even more significant. Where is local democracy in this matter? To the credit of the Minister, Deputy Gormley, he has been proactive in seeking better local government and he is committed to devolving powers to local representatives, for which we applaud him. There is an inconsistency here, however, because this situation represents the opposite. Local representatives made decisions about their local areas but an interventionist Minister told them he does not accept their decisions and that they must return to the drawing board.

A delegation will soon come before the Oireachtas Joint Committee on the Environment, Heritage and Local Government regarding this matter. I ask the Minister to take the opportunity to meet that delegation and enter into dialogue with its members. Without dialogue there will be no progress. This is a serious issue for County Mayo and also for public representatives and councillors all over the country. I believe that the Minister is a reasonable man and I hope he will take on board the points I make and that common sense will prevail. It is not a free for all and people on the ground in County Mayo do not want any such thing. I believe this intervention may have been misjudged and should be examined again.