Mr. Brendan Heneghan:

Yes, but I do not think they can even take a planning appeal as it stands. As for judicial review, a 13-page guideline was produced by the Department, which asserts that they can take an appeal, effectively, provided they are a corporate, which I do not think is what the Bill says at all. Certainly, the bar has been upped quite considerably on issues such as material interest. In addition, because this section on corporates has been put in, one would have to say there is an inference that if a corporate does not comply with the five tests, in some way its standing might be impaired. Some of these tests do not make a lot of sense. One of the limbs of the corporate test is that a body has pursued the objects for a period of not less than one year. If a company is set up to front a residents' association and has not been active for two years because there have been no contentious planning applications, has that been pursuing those objects for a period of not less than one year? It is not standard that companies have ten members; most companies have a single member. Assuming that the issue I am concerned about, that of making an appeal to An Bord Pleanála in the first place, goes away, it is still possible for a residents' association to thread itself through some of this stuff, but the bar has definitely been raised quite a bit. If somebody wants to appeal infrastructure projects in particular, showing a material interest might be quite a challenge.