Ms Oonagh Buckley:

We received sanction in December for 33 additional staff. We are recruiting them as fast as we can. We received a further sanction for 59 additional staff just before Easter. We do our own recruitment in An Bord Pleanála. Because we commenced these competitions at the beginning of the year, we are putting in place panels. With that additional sanction coming through we should be able to draw down the additional people we need from existing panels, if I can put it that way.

We have been pleasantly surprised by the level of interest in taking up jobs at An Bord Pleanála. We were afraid that, with the reputational damage it has sustained, that people in the broader planning world would not want to work for us. However, we actually had more than 100 applications for one of our recent competitions. We are pleased with that.