Cathal Byrne (Fine Gael)

I appreciate that. I thank the Chair very much. I thank our visitors who are in with us today. I have a couple of questions around the idea that it is so easy to take judicial review proceedings. It is a personal opinion of mine that somebody who is not directly impacted by a planning decision should not be allowed to contest and challenge it either at the local authority stage or subsequently in a judicial review.

I appreciate that the officials from the Courts Service are here to answer specific questions about how the process is managed as opposed to how the legislation is interpreted, but it is important to put that point forward.

Regarding this stages of an individual taking a judicial review case, am I correct that in the first instance the application is made to the High Court for leave to bring the judicial review? Does the Courts Service have any data about how many of those cases fall at that stage?