This June article has been emailed to me and I have included it
in full below.
Nemo
iudex in causa sua. This Latin phrase, which translates as "no man should
be a judge in his own cause", is a fundamental principle of natural
justice. Except in Ireland.
Housing and Planning Minister
Jan O'Sullivan published the long-awaited Planning Review Report last week. The
Labour Party has successfully positioned itself as the ethical watchdog of Fine
Gael, or has it?
The report examined
allegations of malpractice within seven local councils in Carlow, Cork, Dublin,
Meath, Galway and Donegal. Civil servants at the Department of the Environment,
Community and Local Government conducted this internal review into their local
authority colleagues.
They investigated themselves.
The findings? The
"rigorous analysis" by the department concluded that the "allegations
do not relate to systemic corruption in the planning system". There was no
"prima facie evidence of malfeasance in any of the seven local
authorities".
On the other hand, the Mahon
Report, published three months ago, found that "systemic weaknesses"
existed within the planning system. The department officials, it seems, reject
the independent planning inquiry by Mahon, which took 15 years, 400 witnesses
and 60,000 pages of evidence.
The very idea that civil
servants would publicly rebuke the officials that they interact with on a daily
basis is simply ridiculous.
Mahon went on to say that
there "was little appetite on the part of the State's political or
investigative authorities to take the steps necessary to combat it effectively
or to sanction those involved."
Well, there still isn't!
Fine Gael and Labour control
all of the councils under review, with the exception of Donegal. Why would the
government parties embarrass themselves by having independent investigations
into the actions of their own councillors?
Mahon concluded that
"those involved operated with a justified sense of impunity and
invincibility". They still do!
Although the internal report
raised "serious matters ranging from maladministration to inconsistency in
application of planning policy", it decided not to name any planning
official.
This was because the
allegations "were not backed up by the evidence cited". But how
objective was this internal report? It appears that the civil servants only met
with senior council officials and not with any of the complainants.
No one was held accountable,
again.
The complainants included the
office of the Ombudsman; the local government auditor service; An Taisce; a
former TD; architects and members of the public.
Their complaints related to failures
of corporate governance within the planning system. This included
maladministration; planning laws not enforced; misuse of planning powers;
professional planners sidelined; permission granted on flood plains and a
general lack of transparency over decisions by planning authorities.
Why were so many of these
complaints dismissed? Well, according to the internal report, the planning
"process involves, of necessity, an element of interpretation or
discretion on the part of the final decision maker".
This is what happens when you
investigate yourself, you get to decide the definition of interpretation and
discretion.
The 2010 Quinlivan Report in
County Carlow went much further. This remains the only independent planning
review of a local authority to date. No whitewash here. Names were named.
Quinlivan looked at how the council operated, in particular the actions of the
then director for planning, Seamus O'Connor.
The report pointed to "a
perceived culture of leniency and inaction" with regard to "compliance
with, and application of, planning law". Irregular practices and
administrative deficiencies included O'Connor having unaccompanied meetings
with planning applicants.
His failure to record notes
of many of these one-to-one meetings was a direct breach of the Planning and
Development Act 2000, which specifies that records must be kept.
Record keeping was evidently
a problem in Carlow. "Files get 'lost', this can occur but perhaps they
get 'lost' due to being removed from offices," Quinlivan noted.
So, what of the 120
recommendations (120!) made by Quinlivan two years ago?
The department's internal
review notes that the "implementation of the report remains ongoing"
because "not all of the recommendations have been fully delivered on as
yet".
And what happened to O'Connor
after he was found to have broken the law? He is no longer the director of
planning for Carlow. He is the director for housing and with the exact same
salary as before. No consequences.
We should have faith then in
the internal review which has promised to implement 12 steps to tackle
weaknesses in the planning system.
But these 12 steps do not
include the Mahon Report's key recommendation of a Planning Regulator.
The purpose of this
independent body is to have the "power to investigate possible systemic
problems in the planning system" and enforce compliance with planning
policy. Is Mahon the new Kenny Report?
What chance is there of any
accountability, or anyone being held responsible when files mysteriously get
"lost", when the Government controls the councils under investigation
and officials investigate themselves?
The system is looking after
itself.
It took the unusual case and
sensational evidence of Jenny Forsey to secure the conviction of former Fine
Gael councillor Fred Forsey Jr in Waterford last month. It would be rather
naïve to assume that he was the only councillor in Ireland to have accepted
corrupt payments from a developer in the last 10 years.
The long-term consequences of
poor planning decisions impact on the quality of life for thousands of Irish
people every day.
These are not historical
issues that can be dismissed as part of the past.
They are the outcome of
appalling, inexcusable and outrageous decisions made by council officials and
county councillors.
For instance, the ghost
estates that litter the country, like the 14-house development at Annagh Banks
in Castlemaine, Co Kerry, which goes on sale next month for €50,000 -- or
€3,500 per house. Or the heart of Limerick city, which has been hollowed out by
erratic development in the suburbs.
Families are stuck in homes
built on flood plains.
The pyrite report, due in
July, will outline how inferior building materials have caused severe
structural damage to thousands of homes. Priory Hall was built under the nose
of Dublin City Council, who failed to enforce building regulations.
These decisions were made by
local politicians and council officials. And the Labour Party, of all parties,
is complicit in the decision to leave the past safely where it is.
Dr Elaine Byrne, Department
of Political Science, Trinity College Dublin. www.elaine.ie. Twitter:
@elainebyrne. Political Corruption in Ireland 1922-2010, A Crooked Harp?
(Manchester University Press, April 2012)
Read the article @ The Irish Independent
Posted by bps town planning consultants
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