Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I know the Minister is saying that the main aim of this section is to fast track the process but there are 26,000 or 28,000 applications in the greater Dublin area, depending whose figures one takes. I am not sure how many are for developments of over 100 units. The Minister might not have those figures to hand but I am sure several of them are. The argument that the local authorities have been holding up the process still does not wash with me.

Senator Boyhan raised the lack of an appeal process and we have not touched on that but it is important to raise and discuss it. To turn the argument on its head, most of the debate has been around the fact that An Board Pleanála will pass all of these applications very quickly but it may turn down applications for developments. That happened in Connemara with the N59, where a decision was favoured by the local authorities, public representatives and communities but An Bord Pleanála turned it down. People were dumbfounded and do not know why the decision was made. There is no appeal process, so there has to be a new application. This is a similar situation. There may be a development that the local authority, public representatives, community and developer are in favour of but for some reason An Bord Pleanála may say "no". There does not appear to be an appeal process in place. How would an appeal be handled in that situation?