Paddy Burke (Fine Gael)

I do not want to harp on about this issue or waste any more of the time of the House on it, but the Minister rejected some county development plans because the local authorities concerned had not taken the status of the national spatial strategy into consideration in terms of hub and gateway towns when adopting their plans. It is clearly spelled out that there is a hierarchy of towns. It is also clearly spelled out that the targeted population figures have to be reached. I interpret this differently from the Minister of State in terms of the advice he has received from the officials present. When a local authority moves to adopt a county development plan, the executive will tell members that there is a hierarchy of towns, that the national spatial strategy has to be implemented and that the targeted population figures for gateway and hub towns have to be reached before any activity or development can take place in the smaller towns. We can have all the plans possible but nothing will happen. It will be a waste of taxpayers' time and councils' resources to put all these plans in place until the targeted population figures are reached, unless a change in that respect is made in the Bill.