Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I concur with Deputy Munster on that point. I am unsure as to what date An Bord Pleanála appeared before the committee but it was probably a month ago. It has come to my attention that in asking An Bord Pleanála officials what they had learned from all of the judicial reviews that had been taken against their decisions, we find that 16 cases that were not been granted permission were never put on public display on An Bord Pleanála’s website. That opens it up automatically to a slam dunk with regard to judicial review. I am disappointed, particularly after the engagement that the committee had with An Bord Pleanála, that it appears that there has not been much learned. Nothing in its correspondence would indicate to me that the board has learned anything. All of these actions are preventing houses from being built.

With regard to the listing of the overview of the substantive legal issues in the judicial review cases, the reality is that they are all misinterpretations and unlawful decisions being made. The courts only deal with unlawful decisions when finding in favour of a judicial review case. We have to go a little bit further here and am concerned, like Deputy Munster, about what is happening with An Bord Pleanála. I am unsure but perhaps the clerk to the committee might inform us if we have written to it in respect of the grants of permission that were not put up for public display and whether we requested an explanation for this. If we have not, we need to do so.

Last year, An Bord Pleanála had a legal bill of €8.5 million, which was more than a 50% increase on the previous year. If it transpires that there will be 16 more judicial reviews than even the board anticipated, we may have a bill of upwards of €12 million. We do not know where the bill will stop but it is a disgraceful waste of public funds.