Mr. Peter Walsh:

In terms of the procedures TII follows, I believe we have a very good set of procedures, with seven phases of delivery. It is pretty much the same project management process we have used since 2000. We were getting projects through and constructed in a five-year period at times then; it is now taking significantly longer. The Cork to Ringaskiddy project was submitted to An Bord Pleanála in 2017. There was a result in 2018 and it took until March 2021 for that approval to be finally free of the court system.

We suggested in a submission to the NDP that properly resourcing the courts might be one aspect of it. There is definitely a constraint there. I would not for a moment suggest we should be curtailing people's rights to challenge processes but the burden on the courts seems to be quite significant and seems to take quite a long time to get through. I can only assume that is a constraint of resources but I do not know for sure.