Mr. Dave Walsh:

Since I joined the board almost a year ago, our new case management system, along with making sure that, ultimately, the system was available to go online and allow for the full services everyone expects nowadays, has probably been the key project we need to progress as quickly as possible. We are not as far along in the process as we would have originally envisaged. We planned it in 2014 and the project has existed for four or five years. If everything had gone to plan, we would launch this year. It is likely to be towards the end of next year but there are good reasons for that. To return to the previous issue of delays and consequential impacts on the operation of the system, we need to make sure that whatever goes live will be fully functional and will maintain the confidence people have in the system. The last thing we need is a less than perfect model to be out there where, from day one, people say it is not working and they cannot make their connections.

The issue is that everybody expects and knows about the system, and we are all working towards making the process as simple and efficient as possible. As the Deputy will probably know from his local government days, paper and boxes of files are still being shipped. We are keeping An Post and other organisations in business with the volume of paperwork, although that will all change. Local authorities will be able to press a button and send all their digital copies to us. We will not deal with large files. We will have everything on our system and it will be visible. Likewise, any letters and notifications will go out by email. We will need to maintain some level of traditional correspondence for people who do not wish to engage in e-commerce, as in the case of driver licences, motor tax and passports. The vast majority of people, however, including professionals, members of the public and local authorities, will embrace the change and are waiting for it to come through. It will have greater efficiency, as well as a cost saving in the system, but it is also a simple requirement of how business needs to move on. Before we developed the new system, the system was functional but it never had the required capacity. When we went out with it, therefore, we knew that the design would be a web portal that would allow everybody to view, participate and make payments, and that it would, hopefully, provide an even better service to everybody.

On SHD and oversights, we work within the remit the Minister and the Oireachtas have set in legislation. The requirement for the proposer or applicant to put all the documentation on a website was very much mirroring what was already there in respect of the large-scale strategic infrastructure projects. I am aware that as part of the legislative measures brought in in 2017, the Minister is undertaking a review of SHD and the process, and looking at whether there are ways to improve it. An independent review group was established to produce a report. The board will await the outcome of that and determine what the Minister and the Government wish to do, and we will adapt our systems. The more information that is available on our website and on that of the planning authority, the better. We do not want to hide information but rather make it as accessible as possible, which would be our ultimate goal.