Mr. Terry Sheridan:

I am responsible for the resourcing of planning authorities as well. It is a constant issue raised by county managers. The numbers have decreased over the past decade or so, particularly since the economic downturn. We engaged with the County and City Management Association, CCMA, which undertook a survey of the numbers of staff at all the different grades in the planning authorities and also asked them to identify what extra resources they would require on a grade-by-grade basis to get back up to having the sufficient resources to do their jobs and perform their functions in the manner they would like. We just received a report from the CCMA on that and we will engage further with them. We would be generally supportive of the submission. There is a reality that if we are to achieve our objectives under the national development plan and enable development to be undertaken, the resources need to be there.