Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Ms Scully is right that it is early days in terms of the zoned land tax. It is very early days of what we are look at here; there is not even an Act yet. We have to let these things settle a little bit and see how they work out. There is no doubt as time goes on that things may have to be adjusted and tweaked. We have had quite a good discussion on resources and we are all really well-versed on the resourcing challenges across all the planning sector from the planning regulator, to the board and to local authorities. When legislation like this is being formulated, I am interested to know about the interactions between the CCMA, the director of services for planning and the senior planners.

There is a back and forth that could go on to get that local knowledge the senior planners have in their areas and from directors of services with regard to the difficulties of actually executing these requirements. Is there a good channel there? The officials have raised a number of points of clarification, which I am sure are not just new. Do the city and council managers have those channels of communication with the Department?