Mr. Jim Dollard:

The first question related to the planning application and its compliance with Government policy. An Bord Pleanála is the institution of State responsible for planning decisions of this nature under powers awarded to it by the Oireachtas. We are very disappointed with that decision. We studied the An Bord Pleanála decision very carefully.

The Deputy is correct in his assertion that the basis of challenge is very limited. It is primarily on process and whether it was followed correctly and not the substance of the decision, irrespective of the policy compliance, or not. We examined this carefully and we took advice from our internal legal experts, expert planners and two senior counsels and the view from all of them was that we had no basis for further challenge on this decision given the powers of An Bord Pleanála.