Paudie Coffey (Fine Gael)

I appreciate the Minister of State's response but we have serious concerns. We are not saying the power is being taken away, rather that the primacy is being taken away. More authority through law is being given to regional authority development plans and there is now an insistence through law that local city and county development plans comply with regional guidelines. The concern is that it is becoming stricter and more managed from the top down.

The Minister of State mentioned the members of regional authorities. I accept they are councillors representing each individual local authority but if we are giving this power to regional authorities, which is what we are doing in that we are giving them power but we have not seen how they will deal with the resources, perhaps we should consider having directly elected members to regional authorities where they are fully accountable to the entire region if they are making decisions that will affect all the constituents of that region. It is an issue we must consider because what they are, in essence, are delegations from local authorities. They are coming to the regional table with the views of the particular constituency, county or city they represent. In this legislation, however, they are being required to have a broader view, which is fair enough. Those of us on this side of the House accept the need for regional and national guidelines and national strategies but we have a problem with the accountability and the fundamental change to the democratic making of development plans. If councillors who sit on regional authorities are more accountable to the entire region, perhaps we should consider having a process of directly elected members but we believe this has not been thought through.

The Minister of State is using the structures of regional authorities that until now have been toothless and under-resourced to carry the vehicle that will micromanage development plans from a national and regional perspective. That is the way it appears to those of us on this side of the House and unless we hear more detail on the way it will be fleshed out and resourced, we will continue to have concerns and this is the place to express those concerns. I urge caution across all sides of this House in that we are fundamentally changing the way local, county and city development plans are being made and that will have implications locally.