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

There were probably a lot more than 1,000 submissions if we take all the different parts of the consultation and the advisory groups and chambers of commerce that fed into that. Many groups came together to make submissions representing a number of people. As the Senator knows, it is only when one goes to the regional level and county level that more people will be involved, and we know there could be 700 or 800 submissions on a development plan.

People have complained about the launch. We had a big launch at the start of this and nobody complained, and there was a big launch at the end, which is not really the end, rather it is only the end of stage one. We genuinely want people to get involved in this process. If we wanted to hide away a planning process and be sneaky about it, we would have no launches and nobody would be making any submissions. We had the launches and went everywhere we could, to all the different regions, to make it clear to people that we want their involvement and that this is their plan, not our plan, given this Government will not be there forever and I am sure someone will get us out some day.