Six towns need to be redesignated as cities by 2010, according to Mr Ivan Yates, Fine Gael's Public Enterprise spokesman, who also called for 12 provincial towns with populations of up to 10,000 to be designated large towns for proper planning and development.

Demand for planning applications had "exploded" and become one of the most time-consuming issues in his constituency clinics, he said. Speaking during a debate on the Planning Bill, Mr Yates said while there were many welcome features in the legislation "it does not seem to get to grips with the real world I am dealing with".

He insisted there had to be a proper spatial development plan for nationally designated regional centres of growth. The towns becoming cities would have to have third-level colleges and the necessary transport, including rail links and infrastructure. The local authorities could then decide which part of each city should be developed and how all the services would be put together in tandem.

"The alternative is to have an increasing level of the population living in the greater Dublin area and a continuous stream of housing along its perimeters," he said.

The demand was for tourism development in his constituency and people who had sold houses for extraordinary sums in Dublin wanted to retire to cheaper housing in the country. There were also people who were "tired of the traffic in Dublin or of rearing their children there and want a better quality of life by living 70 miles from Dublin and commuting once or twice a week".

If this was happening in Wexford, it was happening elsewhere, he said, and the aspirations in the national development plan would not be met unless the planning problem was dealt with.

Mr Michael D Higgins (Lab, Galway West) said he had participated in written and oral submissions for the last Galway development plan. Just under 500 submissions were made "which received a two-line reply acknowledging the submission but stating that no change to the plan was recommended on the basis of the submission".

"I am not commenting on the quality of the submissions," he said, but "I challenge the bona fides of those who claim this is a consultation process". The public, "by way of a notice in local newspapers, are invited to be told what has been decided for them".