Matt Shanahan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The reason for the five years, and the Deputy highlighted it herself, is that the most important thing is that this Bill will pass, in the first instance, that we would set the base standard and that this is where we would move from.

When the OPLA was drafting the Bill, having regard to engaging with different Departments trying to get a feel for this, it felt that if the reporting timeframe was less than five years we could run into difficulties in terms of large-scale projects that are ongoing and tendering. Those are the two main areas in which they felt there was sensitivity. I think the Deputy is right that if the Bill is enacted in a future Dáil, of course somebody can come along and look to tighten it up. I would hope, and I think we all would, that the Government of the day would seek to do that. The commercial realities that have been identified around the five-year timeframe mean that it is probably the appropriate reporting standard to begin with, and we can see how it pulls forward. Five years is not a long time in the life of a government or a politician. Certainly, it is not a long time in a project's development. It would be very easy to see and be transparent for people. The Deputy made the point about the development of the north west and how it is losing ground. If there was even a five-year lookback, and a two-year or three-year timeframe, even though the five years become six or seven, one would see very quickly if there is a trend and one could represent for a fair allocation of resources. This would allow all the stakeholders, including the local authorities, to re-examine their strategic policy and see what they are trying to deliver for the region in terms of strategic infrastructure. To me, the most important thing about capital spend is developing strategic infrastructure that we can use to power the economy locally.