Mr. Michael Nolan:

I will now address the issue of planning appeals to An Bord Pleanála. We try to protect the public's investment in the national road's infrastructure and we try to ensure the network is safe and efficient. In the past five years we have had more than 4,500 planning applications sent to us by the local authorities which are planning applications on national road infrastructure. In about 20% of those cases, the decision will be at variance with the TII policies. Of that number we go to An Bord Pleanála with about 0.8%, which comes down to 37 appeals to An Bord Pleanála out of the 4,500 applications that were sent to us. We have a great deal with engagement with local authorities and we have some discretion and flexibility in some cases. In some cases we cannot find a way to what would be the safe solution. The level of appeals to An Bord Pleanála is very low, it is less than 1%. Most of those appeals are upheld by the board. There are hard cases, where there is a shared entrance but at the end of the day, the intensification of use of a junction increases the risk at that location. The data shows that these leave the network in a less safe condition if permission is given. We have a great deal of engagement with local authorities. We go from the 20% that might not be compliant with our guidelines down to 1% that is appealed to An Bord Pleanála.