Mr. Justin Moran:

Attracting and maintaining international investment is an issue for ourselves, as well as for construction, and it is certainly a challenge. There was an organisational review of An Bord Pleanála a number of years ago which suggested 22 weeks for SID. The reason we went with 20 to 30 indicated a range but our understanding is the complexity and detail of cases has changed substantially since then.

I would make two additional points. If a request for further information is put out by the board, the clock should stop at that point and the responsibility then moves to the developer. However, once the developer has provided that further information, then it should be 12 weeks after that for a decision. Whatever figure we end up with, whether it is 22 or 24, if there is a breach and it goes beyond that, again, a 12-week limit should be put in. Somebody earlier mentioned that it should not be an indefinite extension.