Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will be brief. We need to be responsible and constructive in this debate. The legislation that is being brought forward is with the objective of trying to enhance public participation rather than to stymie or restrict it. The narrow interpretation that is being put on the language, which states that the executive functions own the preparation of the pre-draft is not helpful because it is creating the impression that the executive functions will potentially operate in splendid isolation from the elected representatives and play an adversarial role in respect of them and the communities they represent. That is not what happens in practice. What happens at a local authority level is that there are strategic policy committees and one is dedicated exclusively to planning and development matters. In the course of its work over the period of five years, it engages with management on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. It is not as if the executive functions go off and work in isolation, conspiring against their elected representatives, on whom they are dependent to succeed. They work together. It is just not helpful to try to present it in the light that the CEO or any of his or her assistant CEOs or any of the directors of service would unilaterally decide we are not going to have a public meeting, we are just going to do this online and we will exclude great swathes of the communities we are meant to serve.It would be counterproductive. We need to stop that debate here and now. Let us get on with dealing with the amendments.