Mr. Eamonn Kelly:

The answer is "Yes". We are not talking about strategic infrastructure here. There have been cases of farmhouses or various developments that would be deemed small scale. We are talking about rare circumstances. Applications would be made to An Bord Pleanála. Again, it is to facilitate an assessment. The first thing to assess is what went before and the board would carry that out. The idea behind the proposal is that if substitute consent was then granted, the local authority would have an awful lot of catching up to do to reassess what the board has just carried out. We are allowing the facility to apply at the same time. Applicants would effectively skip the local authority stage and go to the board.

It is important to note that these are not standard planning applications. These would be applications on sites with significant environmental problems. I do not think we will have a situation whereby developers will be voluntarily looking to skip the two-stage process because, by definition, they are unauthorised, as I think Deputy Ó Broin has already pointed out. It would be rare for this situation to arise. It is not something that we foresee anybody will be taking advantage of. No one will be voluntarily applying for substitute consent for the sake of avoiding the two-stage process because, by definition, someone who has to apply for substitute consent is in trouble. I do not know if that answers the Chairman's question.