John Cummins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I have not had any interaction with him before. I wish him the very best in his new role.

I totally appreciate where the proposers of the amendments are coming from on this but perhaps the Minister of State will clarify in his response. I certainly do not believe there is any intention on the Department's behalf to restrict the consultation process as a result of what is being proposed here. I see it as additionality. I hear what Senator Boyhan is saying about the "and-or" aspect but personally from my 11 years in local government and two terms as mayor, it would be a brave chief executive who would go against the will of elected members and solely hold an online consultation where the elected members request an in-person meeting. I appreciate where the Senator is coming from but I do not have the same concerns for that reason.

As I said last week when we discussed this with the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, I believe online consultation has a large role to play going forward with regard to engaging many people who may not have engaged in the development plan process previously, particularly younger people. We have that avenue to attract those people into giving their contribution and say on how they want to see their city and county developed over the course of the next five years. I will use as an example my local authority of Waterford City and County Council of which I was a member up until April. It did a tremendous amount of work throughout Covid-19 in its pre-consultation phase. It got 284 written submissions on its pre-draft.I am open to correction but I think that was the second highest in the country. The council created webinars, instructive videos and an online portal for consultation, and posted them on social media to engage with stakeholders. I compliment my local authority for the way it handled the matter. Perhaps, as Senator Seery Kearney suggested, best practice can be set down in guidance. I accept that other local authorities might not be as technically advanced and may not be able to hold such a process online, or may not have the resources to do so.

While I appreciate where Senator Boyhan is coming from, I do not share his concern because the online consultation is intended to be an additional provision. It will not be one or the other.