Michael Finneran (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fianna Fail)

It is important to restate that all area plans are set within the context of a county development plan. That is a given. This gives greater flexibility to local authority members. The opportunity they have to draw up area plans is not being changed, it will continue to exist once the Bill has passed. I was asked of population bases of up to 2,000 being left to one side at the moment in the relevant local authorities because of the 2,000 limit. That is not the case. This gives flexibility to the elected members of local authorities by increasing the threshold. There is no ulterior motive.

It is important we address matters related to where development is taking place and the opportunities it presents. It is important that if there is a population of 5,000 in an area that there is a mandatory obligation for the local authority to have a plan. That is what the Bill does and I have tried to explain that as clearly as possible.

The point was made about two different jurisdictions and obligations on county development plans to take into consideration regional planning guidelines. The Bill offers an all-encompassing approach to planning and development of areas whether they are in one jurisdiction or two. That is common sense.

Amendment No. 29 inserts a new section 5 which proposes that there shall be no presumption that any zoned land in a particular local area plan shall remain so zoned in any subsequent local area plan. This arises from section 8 of the Planning and Development (Amendment) Act 2002, which provided for zoning in a local area plan by the incorporation of zoning provisions in section 19(2)(a), which heretofore was only possible in a development plan. Consequently, this led to a greater level of zoning in local area plans and therefore it is now considered appropriate that the development plan provisions for down-zoning or de-zoning land, namely section 10(8) of the Act, must be applied equally to both the local area plans, replicating the provisions within the local area plan provisions of the Act. We are bringing local area plans into line with county development plans.