Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I accept that, although interestingly there was some recent public commentary about the difficulty the board has in retaining staff. While additional sanction has been provided, the board has not filled all of those positions. My question, however, is slightly different. Section 59(1) states: "Where the Minister issues or amends a National Planning Statement, each planning authority shall, within 2 months of the publication of National Planning Statement, submit a report to the Office of the Planning Regulator..." All local authorities, on foot of each of those national planning statements, of which there might only be one or two per year, now have an additional set of reporting requirements. We already know they are significantly understaffed. In the framing of these specific sets of requirements, has there been an assessment to determine if the local authorities currently have the capacity to do this? One obviously assumes that following the enactment of the Bill, national planning statements are going to come in one form or another. The County and City Management Association, CCMA, indicated previously that it is significantly under-resourced in its planning sections, notwithstanding the sanction for an additional 100 staff members. Its representatives spoke of a need for an additional 500 staff members to meet existing needs. These are significant additional requirements. The same applies to the OPR and elsewhere throughout the section. I am raising a concern that there are onerous reporting requirements. What happens if the resources are not made available or if they are, the staff cannot be recruited within the timelines set out?