James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for the clarification. I appreciate that the Department has funded the 31 officers. The real point of appointing these people is so they can begin to address the idiosyncrasies and inconsistencies in local authorities and work with the operators. It makes a lot of sense. Since they are in place, what progress have we made on the waivers that were to be introduced in respect of development contributions and planning applications? What progress have we made on consistency in development plans? Where do we stand with the online system for planning applications for broadband infrastructure, which was to be introduced as part of the task force once the local authority personnel were in place? What progress has been made on all of the other associated actions the local authority personnel were due to manage at local authority level once they were in place?

I note the task force mentioned a 90-day reporting schedule to the Cabinet, whereby every 90 days the task force will report on its actions. According to my calculations it was established before Christmas and we are 90 days beyond that, if not more. I presume it has already reported once to Cabinet. The Minister might update us on what it said and when it is due to report again.

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