Neasa Hourigan (Dublin Central, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

There are a couple of things to be raised with this. First of all, there is the very dynamic nature of the construction sector at the moment. I am presuming that the society's calculation of those costs is based on the huge level of inflation we are seeing in the construction industry. Second of all, ultimately, this is a function of our move away from local authorities in 2015. There was a much faster, much clearer, much cheaper way of appealing planning permissions we thought were inappropriate, which was to use our statutory planning authority, which is our local councils. The move since 2015 to go straight to An Bord Pleanála is a self-fulfilling prophesy. Therefore, while I accepts the society's numbers, it is not contextualising them in the correct way.