Camillus Glynn (Fianna Fail)

I agree with Senator Butler. We have the county development plan, the integrated area plans, IAPs, and the town plans and there must be co-ordination among those but too often those of us who are in public life a long time, and I am in public life 30 years, have seen development take place in the absence of appropriate infrastructure. I am not necessarily talking about water and sewerage, which is important, but in the absence of schools and amenity services, all of which are important.

There is a great deal of merit in what the Members said earlier. They are sounding a word of caution about protecting the powers of the local authorities but, equally, we must acknowledge the Minister of State's remarks that we will have to have an approach above and beyond that, which is more or less what Senator Butler said. We must be able to tie in all of them, and that is something that will require a great deal of debate.

I am jealous of the powers of local authorities - the county council, the county borough and the town council. They are important units of local government and there is no better person to determine what is best for an area than the person elected to represent that area because they are suitably educated, if I may use that word, and informed by their local electorate.