We certainly all want to be constructive on the issue of the provision of housing. I know from the media that the Government discussed legislation this morning along with plans and proposals. I see on the legislative programme that there is a housing (miscellaneous provisions) Bill, part of which will be about fast-tracking planning applications. However, from my knowledge of the statutory process, that is only likely to save approximately 12 weeks at the most. Are there any other measures with regard to speeding up the construction of housing? For example, we have many sites that already have planning permission and the delay is at the other end in the availability of sites and moving the process between the Department and local authorities. Are there other measures besides the simple one of fast-tracking and bypassing the local democratic process, which in itself has problems?

The Minister, Deputy Coveney, can take this question himself.

The Minister has one minute.

Yes, there is a straight answer. Today, the Cabinet approved the putting together of that legislation, which will be done as a priority. There is a series of measures, one of which is a fast-track planning process for large developments. There are also facilities around renewal of planning permissions in a fast-tracked manner. There are provisions around statutory time limits on Part 8 decisions made by local authorities on social housing. There are a number of other provisions on protecting tenancies when property is sold between institutional investors. All that detail will be debated in the normal way when the legislation is brought forward for Second Stage in a few weeks' time.