Mr. David Caffrey:

I might just come in on a couple of points. I think the lack of zoned land and how it is manifesting itself is becoming more and more important. To give some context, it is really manifesting itself in the lack of planning applications we are seeing now. Permission has been granted for only 15,500 units up to the second quarter of this year. That is a 12.5% decrease on 2024. Commencement data is probably even more worrying. Just over 10,000 units have been commenced in the year to date. A significant reason behind that is the lack of zoned land.

I will go back to the judicial review point briefly. I think this needs to be looked at through the lens of how participatory our planning process is in the first place. We run through a plan-making process that is lauded as a highly participatory one where we have engagement at issues paper stage, at draft plan stage and again at the material alteration stage. We then come into the planning application stage, where we have third-party rights well founded to object to planning applications. They can then appeal that outcome. That is five stages of public participation before we ever go near a judicial review. Even the Housing Commission in its report spoke about how unique Ireland's planning process is in terms of how participatory it is. This is perhaps the way we should look at the judicial review aspect, through the lens of how participatory the planning process is in the first instance. I think that was an important point to make on this issue.