Francis Noel Duffy (Dublin South West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

From my experience in the architectural space, I know that developers tend to push the boundaries. They normally go beyond what development plans say can be done to see what they can get permission for. That makes this difficult. I will mention two recent examples of problems. In rural areas, An Bord Pleanála has given permission to developers to build large developments in areas where there are no transport facilities for school and so on. The other issue is that, while county councils may object to developments, they have already been objecting to SHDs but An Bord Pleanála has been ignoring them. That is concerning. An Bord Pleanála's recent track record has been one of just giving permissions. It may then follow that a local authority may refuse a planning application on whatever grounds only for it to be appealed to An Bord Pleanála, which will rubber-stamp it and say it is fine. That is an issue and we need to keep our eye on it.