Mr. Kieran Kehoe:

To be fair to Department officials in the planning section, they have agreed and secured that first €5 million for this year. They have agreed that 100 posts and it is just getting through the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform in respect of the exact grades, etc. and cost. From interaction with Paul Hogan and his team, I think that is near completion.

The wider piece is going back to the availability. We are working closely with Paul Hogan and his team on this. It is even to get in touch with the technical universities and colleges to start bringing more people through the system. With planning, in particular, we are at a huge shortfall. We are also looking at international campaigns over the next few months to bring people back or at least attract other people from different regions. We are looking at not just the immediate demand of the 100; it is the wider piece of getting more through the system to create more planners and more technical people for this area and whatever other international routes, adverts, recruitment and so on we can do to attract people here into the planning system. We are working closely and it is a very collaborative approach in how we are dealing with it.