Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy asked about extra staff. I have spoken to many CEOs and some of them have said that they need to bump up their staffing levels. Others had already asked my predecessor for additional staffing and had received approval. More than 500 approvals for extra staffing have been granted, mostly in the housing and housing-related areas. I have made it very clear to the chief executives of local authorities that if they have a staffing shortage that is causing a significant problem in terms of housing delivery, I need to know about it. I will then try to solve it. The local authorities can talk to the housing delivery unit in my Department if there are problems or they can come to me directly.

The infrastructure fund comprises €150 million from the State and €50 million from the local authorities, over three rather than four years. If it is front-loaded, so be it. The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform is open to that, potentially. That said, some infrastructure projects will undoubtedly take time to deliver. When one is talking about bridges, extra lanes in roads and so forth, permissions are required and processes must be gone through. However, work on building sites can start once developers know that the infrastructure is on the way, whether by next year or the year after. That is the whole purpose here, to try to get sites moving.

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