Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Sure. On the Deputy's point on the evaluation of business cases and the length of time involved in that, we have to look at how we have conducted our work, what works and how we can do it even better in the future. The point I respectfully make to the Deputy is when we get to the point when BusConnects starts being built, for those of us who have been involved in it and have seen some of the challenges in our constituencies and communities that are affected by it, it becomes a really valuable part of making the argument for it. You can demonstrate that it has gone through a really thorough evaluation and the business case stands up. That is in addition to the fact that all of these projects involve spending hundreds of millions of their money. A few of the projects we have touched upon here this afternoon would be in the billions and when the Government makes a final decision on them, the Deputy would expect us to be able to bring forward a thorough business case regarding why that should be done. If there is frustration about that within some organisations, so be it. At the end of the day it tends to be people like me and other elected representatives who have to make the case in public.

Where I definitely accept the Deputy's point is in relation to the speed of time in the planning process. I believe the work that the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, is doing legislatively to try to change the planning process will help in terms of the predictability of outcomes and of people knowing when decisions will be made. My big contribution to this, however, has been and has to continue to be that An Bord Pleanála has more planners, more engineers and more environmental consultants in order that that part of the process can happen with greater speed. I accept that this is something we have difficulties in at the moment.