Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Walsh and Ms Graham for appearing before the committee today. An awful lot of the earlier questions dealt with some of the issues I was going to ask about, including the reasons and extra factors that are taken into account for review of the national development plan, NDP. Mr. Walsh and Ms Graham both mentioned planning, which can be a huge issue. It is about trying to find the perfect cross between giving people a sufficient opportunity to point out if there are difficulties that will relate to their lives, possible logistical difficulties that are not necessarily seen by planners, and considerations around being able to implement the necessary infrastructure.

Rather than asking general questions, I will also be parochial. I am a Deputy for Louth and will throw the N52 Ardee bypass into the conversation. That project was on the books and almost shovel ready for ten years but an awful lot of change has happened in that time.

The community living on the Bog Road raised the fact that they would have been completely cut off from their hinterland. The circumstances ten years beforehand were very different. That matter was reviewed and dealt with. I ask for an update on it.

In a general sense, what do the witnesses propose would be a fair process for dealing with planning problems? That is probably a question for the representatives of TII first of all.