Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party)
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I welcome the witnesses and thank Ms Buckley and Mr. McCarthy for their opening statements. I do not presume to speak for everybody here but we all share the same wish, which is to have a planning system that works and makes fair and robust decisions in a timely manner. We all share that goal but, clearly, it has not been the case in recent years, as set out in the documents before us.

I welcome Ms Buckley to her new role. I do not envy her the task that is before her. She has a major rebuilding job ahead. I am glad the new board members are now in place, at least on an interim basis, and will, starting from May, be making decisions on files. Ms Buckley will have a huge challenge in recruiting the necessary numbers of supporting staff, especially in light of the new functions that are now assigned to the board. I suspect the greatest challenge she will face is around rebuilding public trust in a planning system that, in many people's eyes, is broken. She said in her opening statement that certain events "have had a serious detrimental impact on the board's reputation". Some of her commentary recently at the Irish Planning Institute, IPI, conference was not helpful in this regard, but I do not intend to dwell on that here. Suffice to say that robust decision-making in the first place is likely to reduce the incidence of legal challenge.

On the need to remediate the public opinion of An Bord Pleanála, the first question I ask Ms Buckley is whether the organisation should consider making a corporate public apology. I am not suggesting a personal apology in any way, shape or form. Ms Buckley bears none of the responsibility for actions that were taken before she took up her role. Would a corporate public apology be appropriate for an organisation that has so damaged public trust in our planning system?