Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Amendment No. 85 seeks to make the chairperson of the new economic development and enterprise SPC a member of the local authority's local enterprise office. I cannot accept this amendment as the local enterprise offices will be executive offices within local authorities and will perform functions on behalf of Enterprise Ireland under the cover of service level agreements. Unlike the CEB's with a board structure, LEOs will not have a committee with members but will be serviced by the LEO staff. Local oversight of the operation of the LEO by the elected members will be managed through the new SPC for economic development and enterprise. However, I am proposing amendment No. 86, which will enable the local community development committee, or the LCDC, to the represented on the economic development and enterprise SPC.

I am deleting the requirement, as part of amendment No. 91, that the LCDC be represented on the CPG, in response to concerns that there will be an external member outside of the elected members on the CPG. The amendment provides that the guidelines governing membership of SPCs will be amended to enable me to acquire the LCDC to be represented on the economic development and enterprise SPC. In the normal course, the guidelines will provide that this representative will be the chairperson of the LCDC, but in the event that the chairperson is an official of the local authority, the representative on the SPC will be another nominee of the LCDC.

Amendment No. 87 is simply a drafting amendment to correct the title of the strategy to "regional, spatial and economic strategy". The word "regional" was inadvertently omitted from the Bill that passed through Dáil Éireann.