Marcella Corcoran Kennedy (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Dr. Kelly and her team for appearing before the committee this afternoon. I have a couple of questions. One relates to the type of objection the board regularly receives. Can she clarify whether there is a distinction between third party appeals and observers, or are they both the same? Are there serial objectors? It appears on occasion, particularly with regard to large infrastructure projects, that the same faces turn up to object, at least to my eye. Is that something the board has encountered?

In respect of strategic infrastructure development, can Dr. Kelly give a little more detail on how the pre-application consultation takes place and how the board reaches out to the community? I sometimes feel the planning process is very academic for the ordinary person. If a development is planned in an urban area, a planning application appears in a newspaper or in a newspaper in a different part of the country in a little advertisement that is discreetly placed where people are not meant to see it, but it is in a public place. Does Dr. Kelly believe there is room for reaching out more to people? In other countries, for example, I have seen lampposts carrying large signs asking people if they have any opinions on a development, even if the development is on the other side of the road. People are actually invited to voice their opinion. We have to get a balance but the system at present appears to be more weighted in an academic sense rather than reaching out to people.

My other question relates to decisions that have been overturned. How many of those relate to section 180, where perhaps the local authority would have made the decision against the recommendations of the planning office?

My last question is about foreshore consents. Does that just apply to coastal areas or is there any reference to inland waterways? I live in the Shannon basin. Is there a reference to that?