Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

In some senses, I understand the logic of the section, which is that when somebody puts in an application to a planning authority or submits an appeal and it is subject to an application for judicial review, we do not want to slow the process down so a decision on the planning application and-or the appeal can be made. Obviously, the planning application cannot be activated until the judicial review proceedings have been concluded. I am not disputing the logic of that,. I am concerned, however, as to whether there a risk - was this considered by the officials - whereby, if the judicial review is successful, the planning authority or the board will have spent a good deal of time making a decision that ultimately cannot be acted upon. This is about getting a balance and making sure we do not waste time or resources. We would much prefer if there were as few judicial reviews as possible and the quality of the planning applications was as high as possible. There is a trade-off here. I am interested in the Minister of State convincing me that this trade-off does not involve an undue risk of wasting precious resources in our planning authorities under the guise of saving time in respect of an outcome which might not necessarily come to pass.