Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Two areas concern me. When you try to look a planning application online, it is often a scanned document. I accept that in the local authority, somebody has to scan these documents, but sometimes they just do not show up online or pictures or maps can be indecipherable. We have an opportunity here. I acknowledge the e-planning system is a completely different matter, beyond the scope of the Bill, but I am referring to documents that have been submitted and are available in the original, electronic format in which they were submitted, that is, not a printed and scanned copy. Additional work is created when the documents are illegible. Moreover, because of that requirement to scan the documents and not provide them in the electronic format, there can be a significant lag between when the application is lodged and when the general public has access to it online. Should the clock start on the five-week period in which an observation can be submitted as soon as those forms have been made available?