Dr. Mary Kelly:

Deputy Catherine Murphy asked about membership of the board and sectoral balance. The way in which the board is appointed is set out in the Planning and Development Acts. The chairperson is appointed through public competition and the remaining members are appointed by the Minister after being recommended by nominating bodies which are specifically organised to represent various sectors. I am satisfied there is a good balance across sectors in our membership. Most of the members of the board have worked in the private sector at some point in the past. Members represent different geographic locations as well as different types of expertise. We have a number of engineers and planners, an architect and people from Cork, Limerick and Dublin.

In regard to the quorum of two, the planning and development legislation originally specified a quorum of three but this was amended in 2010 or 2011 to allow for two members due to a way of increasing throughput in decision making. The Acts set out the types of cases that two people can adjudicate and are quite restrictive.

We internally have taken an even more restrictive look at that and have very much delineated cases we feel are amenable to people. There is always the option at a three-person board or a two-person board to increase the numbers up to more people. If there is a disagreement, therefore, it will clearly go to a three-person board. Unless the two people are in full agreement, there will not be a decision. We are still in the process of examining whether this is a useful tool. It may or may not be but we have not had enough cases through two-person boards to know that. We will analyse that later in the year when we have a sufficient number. It should work for simple enough cases but it is hard to determine from the outset what is a simple case.

The second issue is if the board is overturning a recommendation of the inspector. I go back to the Acts again. The Planning and Development Acts provide for the board to make the decision and if the Acts had foreseen the inspector making the decision, they would have stated that. The Oireachtas decides that a board of two, three or more people will make that decision. The inspector goes on site, examines and always does a comprehensive report and makes recommendations. The board overturns decisions and if the board does so, it must give reasons and considerations for having done so. One will always see on the board order or on the direction a paragraph that starts, "In overturning the Inspector's recommendation, the Board took account of....". The board has a more strategic overall look at a number of the issues I have indicated, including all the various ministerial policies and guidelines and precedents in similar cases and we overturn decisions because of the nature of the decisions being made.

The Planning and Development (Strategic Infrastructure) Act 2006 sets out which type of development comes under it. Schedule 7 sets out the various categories, including energy, environment, transport, health, electricity transmission, strategic gas infrastructure, railway orders and other. They could come in under the "other" category but they need to be big developments and the criteria are clear. They can be both public and private.