Dr. Kieran McQuinn:

The conference this morning was about comparing housing supply across Ireland, Northern Ireland and other regional parts of the UK and the issue of planning came up. We addressed that as part of the overall. We did not get into it in detail but we made certain recommendations. Notwithstanding what the Cathaoirleach is saying about local authorities engaging with stakeholders and so on, if we benchmark our system against the UK system, there is some evidence to suggest, certainly in the Scottish model, that there is heavy emphasis on consultation at the outset, with a view to minimising objections further down the track. It is almost like an offset, in that if you greatly increase the degree of community participation with and involvement in development plans at the outset, you can then start to reduce the need or capacity for third-party complaints and objections. That is a balance.