John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am sorry I am late but I followed much of the meeting on the monitor. I would like to ask Mr. O'Connor a couple of questions. I was a bit aghast with a response he gave to a question from, I think, Deputy McGrath about remuneration and maybe he could clarify it. If, in my part of the world, a man or a woman was asked to train a junior B football team, he or she would know about the remuneration available in terms of expenses. It beggars belief to suggest that three weeks after being offered this position, Mr. O'Connor is unaware of what potential remuneration or otherwise might be available.

I would like to ask Mr. O'Connor about his time in An Bord Pleanála. How does he view it? He said 7% of planning applications came before the board. Currently, there are at least two different Government-supported programmes for the destruction of houses in different parts of the country which were constructed during that 11 year period, at least some of which were granted permission by the board. Surely it is an indictment of the planning process. There were all the other aspects of what happened in that 11 year period in terms of banking and personal responsibility, but An Bord Pleanála must also have a role in some of the shocking planning decisions made throughout the country.

The notion that what is proposed in Grid25 is a more than doubling in capacity of our national grid beggars belief. No explanation at all has been given as to why this is justified. The days of a State agency of any sort telling the public this is the way it is going to be and to suck it up will not wash anymore.

I fully agree with what Senator Whelan suggested earlier in terms of the need for a full cost-benefit analysis. I respectfully suggest it should not happen at the end of the consultation period. All of the options are still being considered for routes, in particular the Grid Link project in my neck of the woods in the south and east of the country. It is one of the largest infrastructural developments in the history of the State. Deputy Deering raised the question of the motorway development and the possibility of siting it beside that. The cost-benefit analysis should be carried out before the final route is chosen.

I have nothing against Mr. O'Connor who seems like a perfectly pleasant man. I have never met him before and do not know him from Adam but in light of the fact that not a single member of this committee or any other guest has had anything positive to say about him taking up the position of chairperson, does he not think he should reconsider taking it?