Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

In response to Deputy Whitmore, we will publish guidelines later this year on safety and accessibility issues relating to EV charging.

We will have to wait for the advertising review, but I am not aware of, and am not pushing for at this time, a complete ban. We can review that position, of course – in all these matters, we have to keep considering various options – but that is not something that I have seen suggested yet.

I am not aware of a scrappage scheme or any of the other schemes Deputy O'Rourke stated were reported. I am not saying that we would not consider them, but they are not centre stage in our thinking.

I agree with Senator Higgins that resourcing An Bord Pleanála and local authorities is an issue – it is probably the most important one – but there is also an issue with the timeliness of our planning system. It is a problem. The 2000 Act is complex, has been revised and amended many times and has many contradictory provisions. It needs to be upgraded, modernised and reformed. I understand that the Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage is engaging in pre-legislative scrutiny in this regard. We need the new legislation to be in place for this summer. All of the projects under my area of responsibility have been stuck in the planning process for an inordinate amount of time. This is not just because of the resource issues at An Bord Pleanála, but because our planning system is not functioning. I am sorry – it functions, but it is way too slow and we have a real problem.