Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

That is it exactly; I am talking about the practicalities of this. I can see how the stopping of the clock is fair to the applicant. Then comes the fact that for nature, species or habitat, there is no stopping the clock just because there is a JR going on or this is being discussed in the courts. Nothing in the natural habitat is aware of the JR going on, and whatever changes are taking place continue to evolve and change. It is a bit pointless if there are environmental provisions that require something to be built out in a certain and particular way to protect our biodiversity, nature, the environment or a habitat, and things actually changed or evolved on the ground because of the duration of time that has evolved. The end result of all of it might not be the optimum protection for our environment, biodiversity or a habitat. That is the issue here. It is not a contradiction but a conflict between legal processes, so be it, and what is happening on the ground. We just have to keep sight of the intention here. Our intention is to protect our habitats, environment, species and biodiversity; it is not simply to be compliant but of course we need to be compliant as well.