David Cullinane (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is doing some good things in the Government that merit support. However, we need to learn from the mistakes of the past. The Minister served on the old city development boards himself. They were good in theory, but not very good in practice in some areas. It depended on the local authority involved. One of the difficulties that city and county managers encountered, as well as local government representatives, was in getting buy-in from many of the stakeholders. That included enterprise agencies, as they were not really engaging with the city development board plans. We had the same problem with some of the educational providers. Now we are seeing real changes and when the LEOs are up and running, we will hopefully change some of that perception. The new education and training boards are also coming on stream. How is all of that going to work? How will all those stakeholders be pulled in to frame the local economic and community plans? If they are to have any real value, and if the local economic and community development plans are to be as holistic and worthwhile as they need to be, then the local authorities involved will need the support of the stakeholders. Does the Minister agree with that?

If we are going to have local economic development plans, the enterprise agencies need to be on board. Perhaps the Minister might tell of his experience of the old development boards, including their failures so that we do not repeat some of their mistakes. As we go forward with the new local economic and community plans, we need assurance that they are genuine, that there will be buy-in and that they will be meaningful and what we all want them to be. If these plans are being framed but we do not get the buy-in from stakeholders, how will the Minister deal with that and how can the local authorities deal with it?