Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I had a very good meeting with the acting chairperson and the chief planner of An Bord Pleanála only last week or the week before. They have a full complement now of 15 board members. Their staff now is well above 300.

They are starting to get on top of the backlog, which is encouraging.

On the Deputy's question, we believe that requesting go-away money in order to withdraw a planning objection - I have a heard a less polite term for it, which I am sure the Deputy has heard too - but we will stick with that one for now - is already an offence under the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act 2001. However, we are open to considering a specific amendment to the Planning and Development Bill that would make this a specific offence. The difficulty will always be getting sufficient evidence to carry out a prosecution.

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