Ned O'Sullivan (Fianna Fail)

Recently I raised the issue of the direct intervention by the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government in local planning matters. At a very useful meeting of the environment committee this week, departmental officials confirmed that there had been six such direct interventions by a Minister since the introduction of the Act. Four of the interventions have taken place in the past 12 months under the current Minister, Deputy John Gormley. One of the most important tasks of local councillors is the adoption of the local town or county plan. There is a certain nervousness at present because many counties are in the process of completing such plans. The situation in Mayo has been very well covered in the media and there appears to be hope of progress there. I asked the Leader at the time to invite the Minister, Deputy Gormley, to the Seanad to outline his perspective on the planning Act and how he believes his powers should be properly utilised. It is regressive to allow a situation arise whereby councillors draft a plan over a number of months and sign off on it only to discover a month later that the Minister has his own plan. If that is the case, the Department should do the planning from start to finish and save councillors the trouble. I again ask the Leader to invite the Minister, Deputy Gormley, to come to the Seanad as a matter of urgency to outline his perspective on this issue.