Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)

I will commend Senator Bannon's humanity to his colleague in the other House, Deputy Bruton, who continuously excoriates the Government for what he sees as its profligacy in its spending of public funding, for example by recruiting excessive numbers of public servants. The issue of personnel, which has been raised by the Senator, is not immediately germane to the section of the Bill under consideration. I have received the approval of the Department of Finance to increase the number of staff at An Bord Pleanála by 14, in the context of the board's additional workload and reorganisational requirements, and by a further ten, in the context of the Bill before the House.

However, it is not easy to find high-quality planning staff because they are not that abundant. There is a resource constraint. I am content that an 18-week timeframe for the making of decisions is appropriate, reasonable and fair. If An Bord Pleanála is able to make decisions in less than 18 weeks, that is fair and well, but I do not think it would be a good idea to set a lower threshold. I assure the Senator that the decision to provide for an 18-week timeframe, as opposed to a 12-week timeframe, was not taken on the basis of staffing considerations. One would probably be able to justify the recruitment of additional staff on the basis of a cost-benefit analysis if one were to reduce the timeframe in the manner that has been proposed. I do not think such a reduction would be feasible, however. If we want to ensure that the planning authority is able to do its job well, we should give it a reasonable period of time in which to do it. The proposed 18-week timeframe is challenging and ambitious, but a 12-week timeframe would be impossible. I ask the Senator not to pursue the amendment.