Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

To put Senator Boyhan's mind at ease, he will not have to book a week's holidays to do all of this work. I acknowledge that he has been engaging with my officials on this issue for the past year. There will be sufficient time to discuss the amendment further as there are many amendments I wish to bring forward on Report Stage which I also wish to discuss with him. We have some work to do for Report Stage and there will be time in the coming weeks or months to tease out this issue and I will sit down with the Senator to do that because I understand what Senators wish to achieve in this regard and I am all for it. It is essential to ensure that is done correctly.

When I was a councillor, I very much valued my role and decision-making ability in regard to the development plan. That function and policy was reserved for councillors. I do not want councillors and the work they do in that regard to be undermined by potential difficulties that could not be envisaged by anyone present but could be caused by councillors making an error in wording or initiating a variation policy that does not add value. The key is to find a wording that ensures we do not have to review all of their variations and that if changes are made to these powers that they are not unintentionally abused. It does not bother me of what party a councillor who initiates a variation plan is a member because a correct decision is a correct decision. Councillors are well able to do their jobs but we could undermine the original process if we get it wrong and I wish to tease that out with Senator Boyhan. There is time to do so and I will commit my time and that of my officials to ensuring we get this right before Report Stage.

I do not expect Senator Boyhan to travel the country to do all of this research although I am sure his fellow Senators and committee members would not mind if he went missing for a few weeks. Perhaps he might want to do it after all.