Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

For clarity's sake, and pre-legislative scrutiny was mentioned, the submissions on timelines and penalties that were made related to An Bord Pleanála. We have worked with An Bord Pleanála since then, as I outlined. The reason I responded to the point about resources was Deputy Ó Broin rightly raised the issue. I responded to that. Deputy O'Callaghan mentioned advices given from planners about this. The submissions received related to earlier proposals for An Bord Pleanála on what were called penalties at that stage. We have worked with the board since then, as I just said. We sat down with the board regarding the timelines that are set down.

The board members want to meet the timelines that are set. They are doing that under the LRD already, which is good.

Looking at the second Bacon report, we could probably see how many planners were in the local authorities in the year 2000 versus how many planners are in the local authorities now. When the Deputy talks about additional workload within the local authorities, we have excellent planners in the local authorities. We will ask the question, "What additional workload?" The additional workload relates to the additional planning applications coming in because things are moving again. We need to make sure there is not continued investment in housing or infrastructure if there are continued delays and timelines that are not being met. If we are serious about dealing with delays, and I am sure any one of the Deputies here who talks to stakeholders within all sectors will know, one of the biggest risks to further investment in areas is that there is no certainty around planning decisions, as well as inconsistencies. We are either serious about tackling that or we are not, and this is one part of tackling it. That is why I absolutely believe it is appropriate.

Regarding the local authorities, it is in the 2000 Act. The difference here is it will relate to An Bord Pleanála. We have engaged with the board on when it becomes an coimisiún pleanála and the members are very clear on what their obligations will be with respect to meeting the timeframes set down for them to make decisions.