Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I indicated early on today that I am supportive of this amendment. The only issue is whether we have the wording right in terms of legal drafting and so on. In fact, what is being sought in this amendment is less than what I was talking about doing earlier. Essentially, it is stating that there will be a formal council meeting. I presume it will be up to the council to decide the form of that in terms of whether it will be municipal districts or whatever. Actually, there are no municipal districts in some cities, rather the equivalent of that. It might be a special housing committee or something like that. We need to get the terminology right to allow councils decide the appropriate mechanism for them, but there are a couple of principles on which this amendment is right. First, it needs to be a public meeting so that the public in the gallery will have an opportunity to see the minutes being taken and who is saying what.

Second, this is an opportunity to brief the elected members on the strategic housing development and the planning application. I had proposed that we would go beyond that and also ensure that the views given would be reflected in the report to An Bord Pleanála. I take the point about difficulty with that but what we do not want is to go through a process of approval of minutes and so on. There is a danger that will delay the entire process. We do not want motions on planning proposals formally coming from councillors, which would need to be debated with minutes taken, calling on the Minister to come before the council to explain policy or something like that. This is a planning process and as in any planning process the councillors, particularly for large-scale applications such as these ones, need to know what is going in their area. They deserve to be briefed comprehensively by the planning authority in their area. Obviously, the conversation will be reflected in the report that goes to An Bord Pleanála.

I am committed to this amendment. If it would be helpful we can accept it today and look at amending it slightly, if the Senator wants to do that, or he may wish to withdraw it and allow us come forward with our own wording. Either way, I am happy to support it.