Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Ms Uí Bhroin for her views. My question is whether we are going to be back here again. If we are bringing in legislation, we are trying to fix a problem. What Ms Uí Bhroin is saying, and I agree with her, is that there is nothing to say we will not be back here again. There are good things in this general scheme such as the increase in the number of members to 14, including the chair.

To go off on another aside, Ms Dubsky talked about expertise. When I look at the number of people and the potential professionals or experts that could be on this panel, my question, which I think the Chair or maybe Deputy Ó Broin touched on earlier, is about the multidisciplinary approach and people having numerous qualifications. That is brilliant, but will we be able to get all the expertise onto the panel when there are 14 members?

The other point about the panel is about the public interest and people who might not be experts in architecture or the environment but who might be community-based. Sometimes the type of person who brings different experiences is needed on a panel.

Sometimes we see a situation that could be positive or negative. Let us say a local authority gives permission for a certain planning application and the Bord Pleanála inspector supports it. It then goes to An Bord Pleanála and is rejected, or vice versa. There might be local engineers working for a local authority and a Bord Pleanála inspector rejects the planning application. It then goes to An Bord Pleanála and is accepted. How is it possible that a group of experts on one side have a completely contradictory point to that of the board? How can that be rectified? How do the witnesses explain that? I have dealt with a few such cases over the years and found it very frustrating.