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

I will brief in my response. This new system will have to prove itself but we know that the average length of time it took those 15 applications, to which I referred earlier, to go from initial consultation to decision was about 80 weeks and the new system can get through the process in about 26 weeks. I agree with Deputy Wallace that if we did not change anything, many more planning applications would be coming through the system but they would take a long time to get through it. We are trying to accelerate that to get movement faster to deal with the pressures in terms of housing supply.

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