John Cummins (Fine Gael)
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I thank the witnesses and I compliment them on the work they do, which is exceptionally valuable. As a former local authority member for 11 or 12 years, the introduction of NOAC reports have been invaluable in being able to pitch the performance of a local authority against others across various headings. There are legitimate questions for management and the executive as to how a certain local authority is able to, for example, reduce the turnaround time in local authority lettings between properties becoming vacant and re-let and implementing best practice in local authorities in order to reduce that time.

Speaking from my experience, the NOAC report prompted Waterford City and County Council to move in that particular space. We had a longer period in terms of turnaround times. I noted in the NOAC report that we were out of kilter with some areas and on the longer side of letting. I understand we are now in the top three in the country because we implemented best practice from some of the other local authorities. That came from the report and questioning from a local authority member as to why the figures were so high.

I have previously raised the issue of the time lag between the end of the year and the issuing of reports. Perhaps 2019 and 2020 were somewhat outliers. The report for 2019 was issued in December 2020. Most of the other reports are issued in September for the previous year. There is still a time delay and it is not necessarily fresh information. By the time the reports are published and get onto an agenda, we could be into the next calendar year. We could be discussing the performance for 2020 in January 2022.

I know from previous questions I asked that the witnesses are reliant on local authorities furnishing them with information so that they can compile reports. Is there any way that we can streamline that body of work and get a report released earlier in the year so that we can have more of a fresh look at the previous year's performance?