An Bord Pleanála chairman has said the scandal-stricken planning body relies largely on trust to ensure board members disclose conflicts of interest in the cases they identify.
Ave Walsh said it was very difficult in circumstances where board members each handled up to 700 cases a year to know all about their potential ties to planning projects and the developers behind them.
He said there was a code of conduct requiring them to disclose any interests, but admitted: “It does require trust and accountability.”
Mr. Walsh’s explanation of the inner workings of the board of directors was heavily criticized by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), where he was grievous about the ongoing investigation of alleged conflicts of interest by board members in planning decisions they made.
“I am very unhappy with what I am hearing. It doesn’t give me confidence that there is a system,” said Social Democrats TD Catherine Murphy.
Independent TD Verona Murphy added: “You have no checks and balances.”
An Bord Pleanála vice-chairman Paul Hyde resigned last week. He had resigned from his post in May after a series of media articles prompted Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien to appoint a senior adviser to conduct an investigation.
At the same time, Mr. Walsh is conducting an internal investigation and the Planning Regulator is also preparing an investigation.
In a sometimes heated PAC meeting, Mr Walsh was repeatedly asked why he was not paying attention to warning signs of governance oversight problems.
Labor TD Alan Kelly wanted to know why recommendations were not implemented. Photo: Gareth Chaney/Collins
He said he believed that in general the board complied with all codes of conduct and that he would say no more until he had seen the results of the various assessments.
At that point, if there were issues that needed to be addressed, he would handle them.
Labor TD Alan Kelly asked to know why the recommendations of an organizational survey to be conducted by him, which was completed in 2016, were not implemented.
Five of the recommendations related to the appointment of members to the board.
One of the recommendations highlighted the fact that the appointment bodies for members were outdated.
It has since been revealed that Mr Hyde was appointed by a community body that disbanded before he was nominated.
Mr Walsh said the recommendations required legislative change and are now considered part of a wider review of planning laws being conducted by the Attorney General.
Deputy Verona Murphy said there was no transparency in the way the board conducted its business, with no minutes from meetings and scant information about decision-making in the public domain.
“So don’t pat yourself on the back, Mr. Walsh. You have a body of work to do and you would like to start doing it,” she said.
Sinn Féin TDs Matt Carty and Brian Stanley wondered why it was not clear that there was a serious anomaly in the way decisions were made in telecommunications tower construction cases.
On average, the council rejected the inspectors’ recommendation in about 10 percent of planning cases, but the overrule rate was a whopping 90 percent for masts.
Mr Walsh reiterated that he would address such issues if the reviews identified them.