Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their numerous attendances at our committee meetings over the last two years, and particularly the last 18 months. I appreciate the volume of work done by the Department, the legislation that is passing through Ms Graham's office and the pressure her office is under to deal with the matter. I express my thanks now as our discussions can be robust, to put it mildly.

I welcome the opportunity to talk to the delegation because a lot of legislation, regulations and guidelines arrive in a piecemeal fashion or are drip-fed through various schemes, amendments or new guidelines so it can be extremely difficult to be up to date with them, especially regarding environmental assessments. That is why I welcome our engagement and appreciate all of the work done. I know that something which might be appropriate now may not be appropriate in five years' time, which is the angle we are coming at here. Future proofing is commendable and we need legislation to deal with that but is the Department looking at ways to ensure that changes and adaptations are quickly communicated?