Mr. Liam Gavin:

Let me put environmental designations in context. Some 38% of County Galway is covered by designation. Some 58% of the Connemara area is covered by designation. It is a very high quality designation which is very restrictive in terms of the work that can be done; the necessity for planning permission and the bar for environmental assessment is extremely high.

The Chairman referred to the Galway ring road or outer city bypass. Galway County Council, along with TII and Galway city applied for planning permission for the Galway outer city bypass. That was challenged at European level and was lost following five years of our attempt to get planning permission. We got nowhere. The cost at that point was in the region of €12 million in terms of trying to get planning permission for environmentally designated areas.

Reference was made to the M59. We have already spent €3 million to try to get planning permission for the road. We started trying to get permission in 2007 and the first permission was granted in 2013. The second element of permission we have tried to get has taken us three years, and overall we spent over €3 million. Large costs are involved in trying to get permission and bring them to fruition.