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

Yes. I will return to the issue of Moore Street. It is my understanding that there are three planning applications and that requests for further information are pending. The deadline for the latter is next week. There is a view among many people who are more involved in this project than I am that much of the success or failure of what is currently on the table will depend on what happens with Hammerson, that is, whether it will continue to have the ability to invest financially or whether it flips the site at some point in the future. It will also depend on what happens with metro north. I know that the Minister of State will not be in a position to comment on either of those matters but I would be interested to know whether the heritage section of his Department made any formal submissions to the planning authority in the most recent round of the planning process. If it did, will the Minister of State give us some information in that regard?

Will the Minister of State give us a timeline as to how he hopes the Electoral Reform Bill 2020 will progress? I have a small point regarding posters. I am very strongly in favour of tight regulation of posters in respect of designated sites and also designated materials to assist in meeting the sustainability challenge. The level of expenditure on posters is extravagant in the extreme. However, I urge people to always been mindful that, in an era of declining electoral turnout, anything we do that reduces the level of buzz around an election could have unintended consequences. While I share the Minister of State's intentions, I would not go as far as a full ban until such time as we have some good research from the electoral commission, once it is established, on the potential impact on turnout. In the expert advice and some of the expert commentary from political scientists, none of whom has any invested interest in posters, concern is expressed regarding a potential negative impact on turnout. If posters were to be controlled, first-time candidates may be disadvantaged because those of us who get an awful lot of airtime and who are well established have the advantage of incumbency. Let us make sure our approach is evidence-based. I believe we can meet the environmental and sustainability objectives the Minister of State has outlined, which I share 100%, but we need to ensure that we do not lose turnout. I am just sharing that as an opinion rather than as a disagreement.

On the National Parks and Wildlife Service, in the timeline he gave us, the Minister of State took us up to the point at which he hopes to give an update to Cabinet. He did not indicate when he hoped the Government would have actual recommendations regarding the future structure and form on the other side of that. Does he hope Cabinet will agree that early in the new year or is there another stage after Cabinet? It is a little bit like the case of the EPA. It did not arrive in its current form, it evolved over a period of time. If Government is able to outline a trajectory with a very clear endpoint at which we will have a service with the strongest possible powers and the greatest level of independence - obviously resources are a matter for budgets - we would all welcome that.