Ms Phoebe Duvall:

Can I come in there briefly? I echo Ms Uí Bhroin's concerns about the path of the planning advisory forum while also welcoming the fact that we were invited to be on it. Because of exactly what Ms Uí Bhroin has just said about the public being excluded, one of our very strong recommendations to the committee today would be that, prior to the Bill proceeding before the Oireachtas, a public consultation period be opened on it to include explanatory memorandums on the rationale for the changes where needed. That was something that, as Ms Uí Bhroin said, was missing for a lot of what the forum saw. It would be extremely useful to have the public view represented now that we have the draft Bill provided that there is an explanation of the changes and the rationale for them.