Joe Neville (Kildare North, Fine Gael)

I will start with the obligatory thanks to the witnesses for coming in, which it seems we all have to say. I am getting used to the committees here. Obviously we have different topics coming in. Infrastructure is a strange one because we can jump all around the map. It is funny. When I was talking earlier with one of our colleagues, Senator Stephenson, we said that one of the issues we have as a committee is that one week it is Irish Water, the next week it is somebody else, and the next week it is somebody else again. This week it is the Courts Service because, in fairness, it has become topical. From listening to the other speakers, it strikes me that it is good to listen to other people before speaking because everybody can come in on different topics in different ways. Deputy Sheehan was more focused on the courts systems, and someone else could focus on planning. I want to touch on both but primarily we were invited in to discuss planning so I might start off with that as the key issue.

One thing I heard for many years when I was a councillor was that judicial reviews had become more common. The witnesses have provided the statistics but would it be correct to say that they have become more common? Is it correct to say that? Why am I hearing more about it?