Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Whatever about me reading it, I do not know whether the Deputy listened to me. I will read it out again. The IGEES is an integrated, cross-Government service that seeks to enhance the role of analysis and evidence in public policymaking. It is a cross-Government service, which means there is more than one Department involved in it. I also said it informs the Minister's engagements and meeting, including Cabinet meetings.

On what the Deputy said about planning permissions, it is important to point out the report states:

Counties in the [greater Dublin area] GDA and those containing large urban centres, tended to have higher refusal rates. Refusal rates across [local authorities] LAs ranged from 37% in Kildare to 4% in Tipperary.

A 37% rate is a large amount of refusals in the context of the total number of housing units needed. Some people in this House make a virtue of objecting to planning permissions and they need to take a look at themselves and maybe at their political ideologies if they are saying a person cannot build a private house on private land and make profit. I have been at the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform for seven years in three different roles and have been here for all the oral questions. The mantra does not change from the Deputy's side and it indicates his philosophical and ideological opposition to people building their own houses.

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