Mr. Robin Mandal:

I am glad the Chair raised that. He will have to google this, but something that worked successfully for years was what was known as the “yellow book”, which was issued by the Department to local authorities telling them what they should and should not do. It was a wonderful piece of work and absolutely clear. We should have more of those. It died a death somewhat. It was republished approximately 15 years ago but then disappeared. It provided good guidance.

On the issue of decision making, if the committee reads An Bord Pleanála’s inspectors’ reports, particularly those reports on section 5 references, the language is superb. If extracts of those could somehow be brought into the minutes of the meeting of the board or if some other crossover was possible, it would be useful. After years of dealing with it, I know how the board works. Decisions can be made on the hoof - sometimes, they have to be – and you do not want that recorded.