Mr. Frank McDonald:

All of that happened on a pretty widespread basis. An Bord Pleanála acted, in many ways, as a last line of defence against excessive zoning and I would say, in some cases, crazy planning proposals. I am talking about skyscrapers, 37 storey towers in Ballsbridge and all the rest of it. An Bord Pleanála did not go for that and did not see that those decisions were justified. In some cases, the board would overrule the report of an inspector. That happens but, in most cases, the board at least attempts to justify why it is making a decision which was not particularly recommended by the planning inspector who dealt with the case. I suppose one could not expect that the planning inspectors would, in effect, have a monopoly on wisdom either. The board could take a more considered view or might give more weight to particular Government policies, with national policy overriding whatever reservations one might have about a particular scheme in that if it complied with national policy, the board would be inclined to grant permission for it. I am thinking of wind farms, for example, which might be very unpopular locally but the board would say that, on balance, because of national policy to encourage renewable energy, it should grant planning permission for the wind farm.