John Perry (Sligo-North Leitrim, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Roll-out will be attempted by the end of this year. We met the State licensing authority bodies. The project is on the eTenders site and, subject to the successful awarding of the service contract to an appointed provider, the integrated licensing application system will be delivered in the autumn. By the start of 2015, this will be up and running.

With regard to the question about the simplification of licensing, this deals with 28 licenses and 15 State authorities. We looked at the cost of doing business across the economy of Ireland and it involves 159 licences across key sectors of the economy. We hope that, once this is successfully operational, we can roll it out to other sectors of the economy. The Minister identified that this is one of the key disruptive changes in the Government's plan. We are delighted it has moved to this level and we are confident this will be operational from January and will benefit restaurateurs, hoteliers and everyone in the retail sector. It should be of huge benefit.

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