Mr. Eamonn Kelly:

That is no problem. First of all, section 37L is not a fast-track process. Most of the substitute consent cases have taken well over a year on average. It is only allowed for those in exceptional circumstances. I do not mean to pick the Deputy up on it but the actual example he used of the quarry is in at the moment. They are the one development that actually does have that facility as it currently stands. The point of it is that it is for those developments which have got through the process and have effectively shown they are compliant. Again, it may be through no fault of their own. It is not for their benefit but for the benefit of the public, so they can see what future development is happening at the same time, potentially in one oral hearing, although again that is up to the board. It is also to allow the assessment of what went before to be built on what goes into the future. I can understand the point the Deputy is making. It is almost as if to impose, say, a delay on those who have an authorised development but it is important to note inherent in the system is that they could be refused. They have a far greater risk in terms of going into the substitute consent because they have actually voluntarily done an unauthorised development and they now have the risk of having to remediate it all at a massive cost whereas the person who goes through the normal process has not yet built the development and has not on the inherent risk that goes with that. The fact is this is so rare. There are between 27,000 and 29,000 planning applications every year and four or five substitute consent applications. It really is an exceptional circumstance in the normal sphere of things. It is up to all the experts, namely, the independent planning system of An Bord Pleanála, to assess what went before and not to have to duplicate that again. What we are talking about is putting an extra burden on the system. If substitute consent is granted - again, in many cases it is not - and an applicant has to carry out any remedial development he or she has cleared the requirements as far as the EIA is concerned. If applications go back to the local authority and are appealed to the board again, members of the public might not be aware and they might get confused as to what is going on.

We just see this as a general benefit. We have used the word "streamlining". I do not think it is fast-tracking because it is actually-----