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

I have a final comment separate to my overall objection to this section, which I will not repeat because we already discussed it. I wish to put the following on record. About half of the new planning staff the board has employed are coming from local authorities, which means that even with the additional sanctions for local authorities, they are not getting the same net increase they would have otherwise and certainly not getting what they need. I think this will cause the Minister, the Department and whoever is in government a real challenge. I just want to state that. It will mean that some of the additional plan-making requirements we are giving to local authorities, which are a good thing, could end up suffering because there can only be so many planning staff in the planning authority, they will have different functions and responsibilities, and something like this could end up distracting from some of that forward plan-making. I just want to state that as a concern.