Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party)
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That is part of the reason to have the Minister informed that a site has been put on the register or it has been sitting there for two years. It is to give eyes to him or her on how efficiently the changes to the CPO process are working. I think there was a €150 million grant recently for local authorities as seed capital to start compulsory purchase ordering buildings. It will not go to the Minister, it will go to somebody in the Department to keep a tracker on these matters. We discussed in the Planning and Development Bill 2023 the issue of enforcement procedures in planning taking too long. It is important that the Department should be aware of that. We all know enforcement is weak in local authorities. It can indicate a systemic issue that perhaps the Department should be aware of, rather than each local authority reporting it in. It is not centrally managing, it is an overview and oversight of how the 31 local authorities operate. It is no harm to see, for example, that Limerick and Louth are doing quite well and Waterford is stepping up, having those comparisons; I think there are only three sites on the register in County Wicklow. I am open to that and those kinds of changes. That is the opportunity we have because, as I said at the outset, nearly every party has introduced something like this. We are all united. I have no objection to taking any changes or amendments to make this better.