John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Senator Burke mentioned local area plans and local economic and community plans. Section 30(4) allows the city council to make a statutory amendment to an existing county council plan in the interim. In response to Senator Buttimer, section 37 of the Bill will allow the Minister to extend the period within which the city council has to make its new development. The Senator is right.Making a development plan for a significantly enlarged city will be a new task and will require new resources to do it. Accordingly, that provision is contained here.

The Senators are making the point essentially made by Senator Grace O'Sullivan earlier about the Cork area strategic plan, CASP, and LUTS or, as we are going to call it, the metropolitan governance plan for mid-Cork, including the city and everything around it. The population of this area will ultimately in the not-too-distant future be in the region of 500,000 people. The Minister of State, Deputy English, will be responsible for that.

Monard is an old chestnut. While it is not built yet, it was granted permission prior to any definitive proposals on where a line of a boundary extension might happen. It was in the stage when one authority was spoken about for Cork. Decisions have been made up as far as An Bord Pleanála in which no Minister has a role. We will devise a metropolitan governance structure that will include councillors from the county and the city. They will be doing the forward planning piece for all of the hinterland of Cork city, as well as the city area into the future.