Ms Emily O'Reilly:

Yes, absolutely and we very often do this. Sometimes we might be involved in a planning case in which someone has tried to describe a particular issue, for example, about a road. I recall one of the most intractable issues we ever dealt with pertained to Uggool beach in County Mayo. Sometimes we receive enough information through photographs, descriptions and so on, but very often we simply go down, put on the Wellington boots and actually meet people. Consequently, we are very free in that sense.