Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is Ní Ghiolla Phádraig. My Irish is not that great but I am catching up.

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House and for bringing this important legislation. As a former councillor, I share the view that engagement with the public on all matters for which local authorities are responsible is important. The development plan is made once every five years and this is really important work undertaken by both the elected members and officials. It is a pity when it is disregarded by a Minister in office. I encourage the Minister of State to do all he can in his time in office to protect the work of the elected representatives at council. In preparing development plans, considerable time and effort is put in by the councillors and the executive functions. Actually, two years of work go into the Dublin city development plan. Public consultation is important but we need to be careful not to overegg a public meeting. While it is an important activity, it is only one of many interventions made in terms of consultation with the public.I suppose the first intervention is the councillors themselves. City and county councillors all live in their communities and talk to their fellow citizens daily. They are in an ideal position to pick up the concerns and ambitions of their local communities in informal conversations, outside of the heat of a public meeting.

I have been to many public meetings that have been massively distorted and dominated by the attendance of vested interest groups. One can attend a public meeting that is hijacked, to a certain extent. I, therefore, welcome the fact this Government will try to increase the mechanisms by which we consult. The use of technology is welcome and appropriate in Covid-19 times but not any one of them is a silver bullet.

We must remember that in the course of the two years there will be a pre-draft consultation, a draft consultation and an actual consultation on the plan. One public meeting is not going to do this in any county or city. There will be multiple interventions. I also believe that the development plans, when we finally get them made, need to be brought to life and supported. All that effort that goes in from local communities and from the elected local representatives needs to be valued and championed by the Department. In Dublin, we experienced situations where a lot of effort was put into our last city development plan and key values in that plan were massively undermined to the detriment of the city.

I look forward to the Minister of State's feedback on the other suggestions being made. I will, however, caution the House that we need to be realistic about what we are doing here. Let us try to move this process forward in a way that will best serve all our communities.