Mr. Shane Conneely:

I have been saved by the bell here. I will be brief. The place-based approach brings the goals home and makes them concrete. It is part of people's lives. We suggest there has been a mood change in the public and the business community in recent years. It is more challenging with businesses because there have been repeated crises that have distracted businesses, which want to be sustainable but are trying to survive day to day and week to week. There is much wider social engagement at this point, certainly compared with the 2014 pylon protests.

On the local development plans, local actors are important. I particularly emphasise the city and county managers. They are the ones who make decisions that shape our daily lives. I particularly agree with Ms Bennett on resourcing, particularly in the areas of local authorities and skills. There is a need to upskill the planning authorities at every level to bring in multidisciplinary teams that can make the robust decisions that will sustain scrutiny in the long run.

We agree with the Office of the Planning Regulator that environmental objections are likely to be the principal source of objections into the future and that means that the decisions that are made at that level and at An Bord Pleanála level need to be robust. Complementing that, we need to see much more financing and resourcing of the proposed planning and environmental court to ensure that it can hear these decisions speedily. One concern that we have with regard to the current trajectory of the planning legislation is that it is trying to avoid scrutiny by the courts. Ultimately, it will undergo scrutiny by the courts. That will require very high-level Supreme Court judgments and potentially European Court of Justice judgments to see if that is acceptable or not, and that will delay action. We need a well-resourced local decision-making process that can deliver decisions effectively and quickly.