Dr. Mary Kelly:

Deputy Mulherin raised three issues. I have shown the committee the graph outlining the length of time taken to make decisions. We are not making all decisions within the statutory objective timeframe. Many of the delayed decisions either require oral hearings or are complex - for example, energy projects. It is not possible to make determinations on many strategic infrastructure developments, SIDs, within the 18-week period. The pre-application consultation is done at the behest of the applicant and it is for the applicant to declare when to close it. If the applicant does not close it within 18 weeks, time has run out. This does not always happen, but it occurs in the case of large projects. For commercial reasons, applicants choose to keep their applications live and the pre-application procedures open.

I have explained that the bottleneck is and always will be at board level. The board must make the decisions, as no one else in the organisation can. The time taken is dependent on the number of board members appointed to An Bord Pleanála. Currently, we have seven board members and the chairperson. We will return to the 90% level towards the middle of next year, but we will not achieve it this year, given the backlog. We do our best to prioritise cases when they are received. This results in some applications being deprioritised, which does not suit everyone. We have a major infrastructure appeals case list and an application must meet certain criteria to be put onto it. For example, if there is the potential to create employment, we will deal with the application as quickly as we can. Included in this category are schools, hospitals and nursing homes.