Maurice Cummins (Fine Gael)

I agree fully with my colleague, Senator Coffey. The principle of subsidiarity has not been considered in drawing up the Bill. Many people talk about subsidiarity and bringing issues down to a local level for people to decide on them, but this is practically a case of asking the Minister to rubber-stamp everything a local authority or regional authority does. The Minister of State indicated that once a regional authority signs off on a plan then everything has to be approved by the Minister. We have a centralised system where the Minister will decide practically everything in regard to planning. That goes against the principle of subsidiarity. I urge the Minister of State to reconsider that approach. The arguments that are made in favour of aspects of the Bill do not hold up. They are not firm arguments and they have little foundation. The authority of local authorities will be diminished as a result of section 16 in particular.