Mr. David Moloney:

I thank the Deputy for his question. There is a concern about the length of time projects are taking to get to implementation stage and that is being addressed in a number of different ways. A review of planning legislation is at an advanced stage and is being undertaken in the Attorney General’s office.

I currently chair a group which is looking at the public spending code to consider how much of that can be foreshortened, where appropriate. We are aware and conscious of the need to minimise any delays caused by regulatory decision-making.

I made a point earlier is that all of these projects take a long time;from having the idea, to getting the planning permission, to finding the funding. On the value-for-money pieces of that, those pieces can generally be done alongside the planning for the project and perhaps the thing that needs to be done most is that alongside the planning for a project, the value-for-money pieces and the business cases need to be factored in and done alongside it. They do not need to be a surprise or a delay at a particular given point.