Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Kelly. I will take that into account. As well as that, it states that within one or two years you start preparing urban area plans, priority plans and joint plans as well. It comes down to resources.

Senator Cummins raised the point about looking for a section 57 declaration and Mr. Kehoe stated that if it is not complex you would get it done within a couple of weeks and if it is more complex, it could take up to 12 weeks. That comes down to resources as well. If you had a lot of resources in your local authority - an architectural conservation officer, county architect and landscape planner - with all of those key roles you could probably make the decisions more quickly and you would have those kind of timeframes. Nobody will be too disappointed when he or she gets a decision more quickly than having to wait the full period of time. We understand that fully.

This was discussed with the board as well. Those 700 to 800 cases sitting in the board at present are due to a resources issue on having people to make those decisions.

I have a question on section 5 declarations. I asked the Department about this and it is now called section 8. Were they taking up a lot of time for planning authorities? I will ask the County and City Management Association about that.