Results 4,601-4,620 of 28,162 for speaker:Catherine Murphy

Public Accounts Committee: An Bord Pleanála - Financial Statements 2021 (27 Apr 2023)

Catherine Murphy: Okay.

Public Accounts Committee: An Bord Pleanála - Financial Statements 2021 (27 Apr 2023)

Catherine Murphy: Of those, how many of the relevant positions have been filled?

Public Accounts Committee: An Bord Pleanála - Financial Statements 2021 (27 Apr 2023)

Catherine Murphy: How many have been filled as of today?

Public Accounts Committee: An Bord Pleanála - Financial Statements 2021 (27 Apr 2023)

Catherine Murphy: How many vacancies are there?

Public Accounts Committee: An Bord Pleanála - Financial Statements 2021 (27 Apr 2023)

Catherine Murphy: That is 16 of 59.

Public Accounts Committee: An Bord Pleanála - Financial Statements 2021 (27 Apr 2023)

Catherine Murphy: So 16 of the 33, and is there an additional number over and above the 33?

Public Accounts Committee: An Bord Pleanála - Financial Statements 2021 (27 Apr 2023)

Catherine Murphy: Ms Buckley has yet to recruit half of the 33. She is making progress in that regard.

Public Accounts Committee: An Bord Pleanála - Financial Statements 2021 (27 Apr 2023)

Catherine Murphy: There are another 59 to come. What length of time does it take to recruit staff? It is good to hear that people are making applications.

Public Accounts Committee: An Bord Pleanála - Financial Statements 2021 (27 Apr 2023)

Catherine Murphy: When did Ms Buckley get the sanction for the 33?

Public Accounts Committee: An Bord Pleanála - Financial Statements 2021 (27 Apr 2023)

Catherine Murphy: It has taken from December to towards the end of April to recruit half of the 33 staff.

Public Accounts Committee: An Bord Pleanála - Financial Statements 2021 (27 Apr 2023)

Catherine Murphy: Progress is being made. We are looking at probably the end of the year before An Bord Pleanála will be up to its full complement of staff.

Public Accounts Committee: An Bord Pleanála - Financial Statements 2021 (27 Apr 2023)

Catherine Murphy: There are backlogs obviously and the 18-week requirement has not been filled. Does Ms Buckley know the number of cases in respect of which An Bord Pleanála has not managed to deliver decisions within 18 weeks, or is it all of the current decisions?

Public Accounts Committee: An Bord Pleanála - Financial Statements 2021 (27 Apr 2023)

Catherine Murphy: What would it take to get to, and when does Ms Buckley expect to get to the 18-week timeline for delivering decisions?

Public Accounts Committee: An Bord Pleanála - Financial Statements 2021 (27 Apr 2023)

Catherine Murphy: How many people have been seconded?

Public Accounts Committee: An Bord Pleanála - Financial Statements 2021 (27 Apr 2023)

Catherine Murphy: I will come back on some of those.

Public Accounts Committee: An Bord Pleanála - Financial Statements 2021 (27 Apr 2023)

Catherine Murphy: I agree with Ms Buckley on the employment in-house of legal expertise. If it is well used, it certainly can be a very good value-for-money initiative as well as everything related to good governance. Regarding the fines, have there been any fines in relation to the large-scale residential development, LRD, process yet?

Public Accounts Committee: An Bord Pleanála - Financial Statements 2021 (27 Apr 2023)

Catherine Murphy: Is An Bord Pleanála projecting forward because timelines will be missed and is it making a decision on the prioritisation of strategic housing development, SHD. and LRD applications? Is that an aspect An Bord Pleanála is considering?

Public Accounts Committee: An Bord Pleanála - Financial Statements 2021 (27 Apr 2023)

Catherine Murphy: Therefore, those will be prioritised in front of other cases-----

Public Accounts Committee: An Bord Pleanála - Financial Statements 2021 (27 Apr 2023)

Catherine Murphy: When you consider the housing crisis we have at the moment, and that would be the bulk of the kind of applications that are coming in, whether they are one-offs or multiple units or whatever, not having a full board or a full complement of staff would be unconscionable given the need to get good decisions. I do not think every application that is made for planning is necessarily a good...

Public Accounts Committee: An Bord Pleanála - Financial Statements 2021 (27 Apr 2023)

Catherine Murphy: Obviously it was in the legislation that there would be fines, therefore it is incumbent on the Department to give An Bord Pleanála the resources to deal with that. When did the board start alerting the Department to that deficiency? I ask Ms Buckley to go back on that and come back to us with accurate information on it.