Mr. Robin Mandal:

Can I pick up on that whole national thing for a minute? Because we are Dublin-based, this is to a great extent about housing and about Dublin but the real power in the Bill is dealing with national issues, infrastructure and all of the stuff we need for the future. It would be nice if we could concentrate a little bit more on that and to take away some of the shibboleths which surround that. This whole thing about strategic infrastructure development was illustrated where one of the bodies which works with us is the Dublin Port Company. It is a master in dealing with that. It has been very good for it and for the country. The whole issue of wind energy and all of that stuff is really important and it would be nice to focus out a little bit.

I would say two things which again go back to the issues of objections, delays and this, that and the other. One of our biggest pieces of infrastructure is the north runway at Dublin Airport. That did not have an strategic housing development, SHD, large-scale residential development, LRD, or anything. It went through the planning process through the local authority, went to the board and was granted permission - and I would bet that nobody present would remember this - in October 2007. It was finished and opened in the past year. That was the delay which had nothing to do with the planning, the objections, or anything like that. The next major project is metro north, where we will be hearing all about the delays.

Metro north got permission in 2010 and was never built. The permission has gone; it has ceased. The delays are not caused by people making observations, they are caused by a whole load of other things. Unless we address those delays, we will not get the infrastructure or energy supply we need and all that stuff for the future. It would be nice to pick some of that out of the Bill too. The Bill is trying. I am trying to be positive. The Bill is trying.