Paschal Donohoe (Fine Gael)

Amendment No. 3 is welcome but I have a question for the Minister thereon. Based on his response, he envisages that the Joint Committee on Transport will be the committee with an input. Would it be worth making a change to allow for more than one Oireachtas committee to have an input, or at least thinking about allowing this? The Joint Committee on the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, for example, might well have a view on the operation of the authority when it is considering changes to planning guidelines. I make this point in the context of the fact that the national authority will have the ability to make a contribution to regional planning guidelines for areas outside Dublin. With this in mind, it might be worth allowing an Oireachtas committee other than the Joint Committee on Transport to make a submission. It appears from the legislation that only the Joint Committee on Transport is given this role at present.