Mr. Kieran Kehoe:

I will respond to the Senator. We can compare areas of our current system with the arrangements under the draft Bill. We currently operate under timelines for decision-making across many different areas. As we said in our submission, we feel those timelines should be more appropriate to the application. Regulations could require longer timeframes for applications that need more consideration or could speed up the process. The Senator's example of protected structures probably reflects the situation. An initial assessment could be carried out. Many notifications come to us as section 57 declarations under the current legislation that are small in nature and can be turned around quite quickly to allow works to happen, particularly, as Councillor Sheahan said, in respect of our new town centre first and regeneration plans. We are trying to get things moving and such an approach would be welcome, to a degree. In certain instances, when a substantial alteration to a protected structure is proposed, we are caught by that 12-week timeframe because such propositions can take a substantial amount of time to consider. Perhaps we could run an assessment over a four-week period, after which we could estimate how much longer would be required to provide an answer. We can try to facilitate an early decision in respect of projects that could get an early response and work within the standard timeframes otherwise.