Paddy Burke (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister. While I am in favour of some aspects of the Bill, I do not support other provisions because they are not logical. I hope the Minister will introduce amendments on Committee and Report Stages and I have no doubt the legislation will change significantly during its passage through the Houses.

The Minister has all but blamed councillors for the economic downturn. While councillors zone land, planning permission is granted by county managers. Section 140 powers, under which a county manager may be directed to grant planning permission, are seldom used. For this reason, county managers are to blame for many of the bad developments around the country because they are effectively the chief planning officers of the councils and local authorities. Councillors draw up a plan on which submissions are made by objectors and supporters, including council officials. In recent years, the Department has intervened at the final stages of some area plans. Councillors who draw up area plans are not the cause of our financial problems.

To take the Minister's logic to its conclusion, the more land that is zoned, the greater the availability of development land and the lower the price for sites. If the number of acres of zoned land is reduced, as proposed, the price of development land and sites will increase. The Minister's plan envisages that land will only become available on a phased basis. Surely this will increase the cost of development and zoned land because the amount of development land available will decline. If the amount of zoned land is reduced, we will return to the old days when restrictions were imposed on development land in Dublin.

I note the Minister has extended the validity of planning permissions for a further five years. I presume his decision is connected to the establishment of the National Asset Management Agency which will acquire many of the loans for these developments. Without planning permission, the sites in question would be worthless. While I do not have a problem with the proposal to extend planning permissions for five years, I expect the Minister to make alterations in certain cases where the proposed developments reflect poor planning.