Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Since Mr. Sheridan’s ears have just pricked up there, could I ask if the committee could get a note with further explanation on exactly how the fee structure will work, particularly on that upper limit? I presume there has been some assessment on what level of fees the board has gotten in the last year. This goes to Deputy Higgins’s point that Dublin, the commuter belt and a bit of Cork will carry the bulk of this. Therefore, we need to ensure that in addition to the huge numbers of extra staff the Minister, Deputy Darragh O’Brien, will provide for in his significant announcement in the coming days, we also see significant increased fees coming in. This is because one of the challenges for local government is that if they have to get more staff from roads, from water services or from elsewhere involved in pre-planning, it might be the case that they do not get extra staff, but they take staff from other crucial functions. Then we, as constituency Deputies, will start getting complaints about how the roads officials are spending all their time doing pre-planning and, therefore, cannot do X,Y and Z. Deputy Higgins’s point is, therefore, important not just for Dublin but for the commuter belt. If we could get a good detailed briefing note on the fees, that would be helpful for us.