Paddy Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State. I refer to amendments Nos. 16 and 17 and variations of county development plans. There is no great flexibility in county development plans. The national development plan is running at the moment and trying to grow the regions by cities. Some smaller towns may have zoning for development land for enterprise or industry which is no longer required but it is still in the development plan under a zoning that might not apply for housing. The matrix would not apply to it. There is no great flexibility in the plan for the county manager or the members to say they will dezone a piece of land because it is zoned enterprise, development or commercial and rezone it for housing. If land is rezoned, some other place has to be dezoned. Where land is already zoned, whether for enterprise, development or whatever and the council or manager feels housing could be appropriate to that land because it might be near schools or some infrastructure, then this should be allowed in the matrix rather than having to dezone land in some other place. It does not allow the flexibility in a development plan that should be required. It is too rigid and it is at a cost to housing. The land is lying idle. It may never have an industry or a small factory put on it but housing could be put on it. In small and medium-sized towns throughout the county, there is a lot of land zoned industrial, enterprise and so forth that could be zoned for housing. However, to rezone it, land has to be dezoned somewhere else. Councillors will not do that in county development plans. It would be a problem for them if they had to dezone land that is zoned for housing or whatever. The Minister of State should look at the issue and give country development plans more flexibility, whether to the manager or members, as a variation of plans or whatever. Some tool could be used to make it more flexible.