Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I do not think we have had as large a number of people before our committee before. There are more witnesses than there are full members of the committee. It may be a case of safety in numbers, but we will see how we get on.

First, there is much in all the opening statements that I agree with. All of us in this committee want to see more homes built and more offshore wind energy. With respect to the homes, we also want to make sure they are well planned, well built and, if possible, more affordable. We share that common objective. I also have to say that we strongly agree that our planning system needs to be properly resourced, both in terms of the additional plan-led elements of this Bill, but also of the consents both of the board and the planning authorities. I think we probably collectively will be making that case to the Government at the end of this.

I have some specific questions related to the Bill and aspects of it, first for Mr. O’Connell and then for Dr. Duffy. Mr. O’Connell mentioned planning objections and legal challenges from various groups of people. The one group of people he did not mention was developers. There has been a significant increase in judicial reviews initiated by developers. Without, of course, commenting on any of those, is Mr. O’Connell as concerned about the impact those judicial reviews will have on delays and costs as he is about judicial reviews that are taken by other parties in the planning process? I believe there have been approximately 32 judicial reviews that are predominately housing, planning and development plan-related. Does he have a sense of where they are coming from and is that something we need to be mindful of as we consider the content of the Bill?