Mr. Paul Kelly:

Certainly, the length of time is an issue. I have to preface this by saying I am not a planning expert by any stretch of the imagination. All I can feed back is what developers and the industry tell me. They say that the length of time for planning in Ireland is longer than in other places where they might be building hotels. This put them off because time is money. There is a cost involved and this is a factor. Many people work incredibly hard in local authorities and An Bord Pleanála and I do not want to be critical of them. The length of time for planning is certainly an issue that is raised.

The availability of sites is a key issue holding back hotel development in Dublin. Dublin is not a green field; it is a built city. It is a challenge. The question to the planners is whether anything more can be done on more availability of sites and perhaps easing the height restrictions in more areas. Building a seven-storey hotel instead of a six-storey hotel creates a bunch of extra rooms that do not cost that much more to build but add a lot to the room capacity in Dublin. Issues such as these should all be looked at. As I say I am no expert but the right question to be asking is how we can facilitate this development.