Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I was referring only to the members of the board. To come back to my earlier points, I will deal with the example of a refusal by the local authority, but it could as easily be an approval. A type of development might be precluded by the county development plan, a plan whose development would have involved an enormous level of public consultation and a great amount of deliberation at local authority level based on the advice of officials, which may be adopted by members of the local authority. Let us take the case of a developer making a proposal to the local authority. This developer will probably engage in preplanning consultation and, after submitting the application, further information may be sought. Another process may go on for six months in which attempts are made to resolve issues. At the end of the day, the local authority planners may nonetheless decide that the development is inappropriate for a given location. An appeal may then be made to An Bord Pleanála and then the board's inspector, having visited and looked at all the evidence, may decide to recommend that the local authority's decision be upheld. There will then be a meeting with three representatives, two of whom - who will remain unnamed - may decide to overturn the recommendation of their own inspector and the local authority's decision, while providing minimal information as to how they came to that decision. It is quite possible that these representatives will never have set foot in the county, never mind having looked at the site in question. I do not aim to cast aspersions on any members of the board, current or past, but does Mr. Walsh see how there is the potential for corruption in such a system?