Ms Oonagh Buckley:

Obviously, I cannot really comment on particular policy matters but I believe the legal environment in which the board is operating will involve the current high rate for some considerable time to come. The legal environment we are working in is extremely complex. When you replace heavily litigated legislation - and the 2000 Act has been very heavily litigated in the intervening 22 years - with a new Bill, it tends to raise novel areas of law which require determination by a judge in some cases.

Decision makers are taking decisions under a new law. They have to make judgment calls sometimes. Those judgment calls can be the subject of litigation. I am highly supportive, and I have said this on the record of another Oireachtas Committee, of the new legislation being brought in. It will help to clarify and reduce the complexity of the law under which we work at the moment. I do not believe there will be a reduction in judicial review cases going forward. The only way we can achieve that is if it becomes more difficult to win cases against An Bord Pleanála.