Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

To pick up on that point, I recall, when the legislation was going through the Houses, asking where the appeals process was and being told it was the courts. Are we surprised, therefore, that we are spending a lot of money on judicial reviews when people believe there is no appeals process other than to the courts? There is a financial cost to this but it was always envisaged that it would be the appeals process. The judicial reviews are not on the principle of the decision but rather on some technical flaw. As Mr. Walsh stated, it is in regard to issues such as environmental law that we see the appeals.

I have seen much disquiet in my area in regard to strategic housing developments because people engage in the local or county development plan process, there is an expectation and then it deviates considerably, in both the type of development and the matching facilities and services that should go with developments but are not part of the strategic housing process. What was the board's staffing in advance of the introduction of the strategic housing process and how did it change? To what extent was it scaled up?