Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

We are up to nine minutes, Mr. Ward. There is a further Fianna Fáil slot during which Senator Fitzpatrick can contribute. I will take the next slot, and I thank Senator Boyhan for offering it to me, because I have to speak shortly. I will set the timer and keep myself to the same time.

First, there is a common theme when we bring in local authorities. We are aware of the staff constraints, the recruitment and retention of staff, and the difficulties with the existing inflationary costs, and it is common across the board. One the environmental surveys Mr. McLoughlin mentioned which are necessary, is there scope for some environmental surveys to be carried out at an earlier stage than the planning permission stage? The council owns this land and will put residential or mixed use units on it. Is there a scoping baseline of environmental survey that could be done so there is not that difficulty when the planning permission stage is reached?