Shane Cassells (Meath West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The point raised by Deputy MacSharry is much broader. We should consider how the business case is made for major infrastructure projects or their expansion and the documents that are examined by consultants. Some weeks ago when Ms Anne Graham from the NTA was before the committee, I raised the flawed business case that was written in 2011 relating to the Navan rail line in my constituency. Where are all the documents that they are examining? They are lifting them from the senior planners in every county. As Deputy Murphy noted, they are only looking at the development plans, projections for land zoned and so on. Every senior planner in the country is writing the same document. The senior planner in my county has written the business case for the extension of the train line that is required and I am sure that is the same everywhere, whether it is to address congestion in Galway or whatever. These people are paid by the State in the first instance. The duplication of this work is a waste of taxpayers' money. I am frustrated that a senior planner is paid money to write something only for his or her work to be re-examined by a consultant who is paid out of the public purse by the NTA to just lift the planner's work, stick a cover on it and give it back to the authority. It is bananas. The people who are employed by the State in the first instance know the nuts and bolts. What frustrates me even more is that some of the consultants come in and reject what the senior planner said originally. Who do we trust more? I trust the senior planner who is employed by the State and knows the nuts and bolts a damn sight more. Deputy MacSharry's point about the processes that we go through to produce a document to put on a Minister's desk, who is prepared to make a decision and who is the fall guy if something goes wrong is pertinent. It is worthy of much more discussion, perhaps when we consider the chapter on local government and State agencies again. I fully endorse those points.