James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)

I reject the premise that there have been delays. For example, 54 CREL projects have been approved since the beginning of July last year and the average number of working days was 48 for this period. The processing times for individual applications can vary for the reasons I have outlined. That said, the trend is that projects are taking less and less time to assess. For example, projects submitted from July to December 2024 took 93 working days on average, whereas projects submitted from January to July 2025 - in my time - took 15 days on average. However, it is important to note that the standard deviation is high. Each project is assessed on an individual basis so the time it takes to assess one project does not in any indicate the time taken for another project. The longest time an application was on hand with the Department before receiving approval was 200 working days, while the shortest was a single working day. That can come down to a number of different reasons. We process these as quickly as possible but it can come down to the nature of the application. We have to do value for money, look at the specifications and, at times, seek further information in relation to various applications.

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