Ms AnnMarie Farrelly:

There is no doubt that resourcing and planning require a holistic approach. That begins with the colleges and universities in attracting more people into the discipline in order to get more graduates and, for our part, working to make sure adequate training can be given to those graduates in order to become planners.

In regard to the ongoing discussions with the Department, a number of staff, about 100, have already agreed to be appointed this year. The recruitment of those staff is proving challenging because others, such as An Bord Pleanála, the regulator and all the local authorities are also recruiting. However, the principle of needing extra resources is established. That is accepted. We are working to try to find ways in which to increase the supply of planners. It is a challenging space. In regard to the alignment of all the various pieces of legislation, if, for example, the exemption from the land value sharing aligned with the exemption from Part V, we could find efficiencies in that way in order that every piece of legislation talks to the other and reduces the number of steps in any given process in order that it is not a parallel process and that land value sharing could be integrated in some ways with other processes associated with the development.

The development plan process is resource-heavy and quite difficult so the changes are welcome. I agree with Ms Scully’s point that efficiencies can be made and some space for the development plan to be implemented on the ground will give opportunities to work on plans.

To reassure the members, all planning authorities prioritise plans, whether they are local area plans or other types of plans, to areas that can be activated first. Where a critical piece of infrastructure is needed and will take time to deliver, the time may be better spent in trying to get that infrastructure delivered. In planning and land use terms, there is little point in having a plan if there is no plan to deliver the infrastructure. Members may hear from landowners that their LAP is not done. However, there may be a valid reason in respect of the infrastructure required for the site in question that it is not top of the list for plan preparation. There is an approach that is taken in any event but more resources are needed.