Conor Sheehan (Limerick City, Labour)

I thank the witnesses. I have several questions. Do they believe the new planning and development legislation will address the legalistic nature of the planning system, which causes so many problems? Is the shortage of judges, for example, putting in place obstacles to getting judicial matters dealt with?

With regard to the concept of a single entity with statutory powers to co-ordinate and prioritise infrastructure projects, how do the witnesses envisage it working? Is the Department of public expenditure the right entity to deal with infrastructure? As an outsider looking in, I feel it is the problem in many cases and that the infrastructure unit should not be contained within the Department that controls the purse strings and in many cases stops things or holds things up.

With regard to the comment on the decision-making timeline for contract awards, I agree 150% with the need for parallel consenting. With this bid and tender evaluation taking 243 days, is there an example of a gold standard somewhere in the European Union where this has been able to be done in a timely manner? One thing we are very good at in this country is designing tortuous systems. Whether that is the delivery of housing or capital infrastructure, it makes it almost impossible to draw down the funding and deliver the infrastructure. I would welcome the witnesses' thoughts on that.