Mr. Tim Murnane:

Those engagements are provided for in the various recent changes to planning. It has been going on since the former Minister, Simon Coveney's time, when he changed planning rules. In theory, it is a really good idea. There is engagement. There are various section 242 meetings etc. and you go through the process. That is brilliant if it works but sometimes it can be very frustrating. You do all that, everything is done and you get confirmation from the local authority before you submit the application. That is perfect and, after two months, you get back a refusal for something that was openly agreed. That is very frustrating and an example of this adversarial approach. If there is genuine collaboration, that just should not happen. Why are rabbits are pulled out of the hat subsequently? That leads to delays so the developer has to invest in the planning application and figure out what we have to change, which should have been done the first time. When I say developers, equally it could be a Part 8 or a public situation. Then you have to go back in and there are delays, with costs going up all the time like the compounding impact that Mr. Finlay mentioned. It is much harder than it should be or needs to be, in my view.