Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Members will see that the remainder of the issues on which we asked for feedback are dealt with in the correspondence.

No. R1474 is from Graham Doyle, Secretary General of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, and is dated 6 September. It provides information requested by the committee arising from our meeting with An Bord Pleanála on 14 July. It is proposed to note and publish this item of correspondence. Is that agreed? Agreed. I flagged this item. There is an issue in it regarding analysis of the cost of the judicial reviews of a housing development, including whether additional cost is built in in anticipation of a judicial review. The correspondence states that the committee may wish to be aware that the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland has estimated that the overall construction cost impact of a judicial review could range from €8,000 to €12,000 per unit - per house or apartment - for every year the development is delayed. I am just highlighting this. While we do not want to close off the judicial review process, it is in some cases adding a huge price to the already rapidly escalating price of houses and apartments. Of interest to the committee, from our point of view, is that when An Bord Pleanála challenges these judicial reviews, there is a cost there as well. This system would seem to me to be broken.