Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Again, I agree wholeheartedly, particularly in regard to Dublin. The fees collected for SHD previously would have been about €20 million so we can anticipate that all of those fees will now revert directly to local government, depending on the scale of the development that progresses over the next number of years. There is increasing investment in resources and that should apply equally to Dublin as it does to Leitrim or to Sligo. We have a very good local government system in this country. The Minister of State, Deputy Burke, is deeply committed to ensuring it is adequately resourced because the challenges we have ahead, and the opportunities we have ahead, are very significant.

It is a changed landscape between the climate and biodiversity ambitions in this programme for Government and right across all aspects of development. We are committed to ensuring that local authorities have the adequate resources to carry out their work, and to go beyond that by being able to be ambitious in developing projects and plans for their communities, as well as meeting climate and biodiversity objectives.