Mick Clifford: Kenny exit shuts the book on 'annus horribilis' for An Bord Pleanála
Effectively The Pleanála Picture: Chaney/collins File Book Of Controversies On Has A Bord Gareth An Series Closed Long
The departure of Rachel Kenny as director of planning in An Bord Pleanála in one sense closes the book on the controversies that engulfed the planning body last year. Ms Kenny was one of the high-profile individuals at An Bord Pleanála who was alleged to have had a number of conflicts of interest or engaged in questionable practices, allegations of which she was cleared.
The chair and vice chair of the body left last year. In March, board member Michelle Fagan, who had been involved in a large number of decisions over which the process was called into question, completed her term of office. Now, Ms Kenny, who was considered to be one of the most powerful figures in An Bord Pleanála, is leaving.
Ms Kenny was cleared of any wrongdoing by an investigation contracted to an outside agency but major questions were raised about how this was undertaken. After the initial allegations surfaced, first through The Ditch website and then the Irish Examiner, an internal review was commissioned. Three senior figures in the body conducted this extensive investigation.
However, at one point, An Bord Pleanála chairman Dave Walsh instructed that the allegations against Ms Kenny should be hived off into a separate investigation which he commissioned. This was conducted by an industrial relations company and examined four allegations made on OnTheDitch.com against Ms Kenny.
One case involved her direct involvement in a planning application in her general neighbourhood. The other three concerned cases in which her former husband was part of an applicant team for planning permission.
The investigation found that in each of the cases either the circumstances or the extent of her involvement was misrepresented by the media outlet. However, the investigator didn’t contact The Ditch as part of the probe and at no point had Ms Kenny, either personally or through a solicitor, contacted the site to claim she was being misrepresented.
The overall review was separately highly critical of a number of practices that had been highlighted in the media and made recommendations as to how the culture and practice of the organisation could be improved.
When the published details of both of these investigations last November, Fórsa, the union representing staff at An Bord Pleanála, wrote to the chairperson Dave Walsh urging publication of the reports and stating that its members had “lost confidence” in senior management figures.
Mr Walsh refused to publish the reports citing legal issues but within days he took early retirement. The Office of the Planning Regulator also conducted reviews as a result of the media allegations and made a number of recommendations as to improve processes and management coming out of the controversy.
In January, Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien appointed Oonagh Buckley, an experienced civil servant, as interim chairwoman of An Bord Pleanála.
Her remit was effectively to get the organisation back on track. The controversies had, among other things, led to a major backlog in planning appeals at a time when there are frantic efforts to get more housing in particular built.
She boosted the size of the board from its depleted six members to the current compliment of 14.
Many of these extra members have been seconded from elsewhere in the public service which could give rise to questions over independence.
For instance, if these individuals are destined to return to employment by the State, can they be wholly independent when dealing with cases in which the State is opposed by citizens or private interest groups? She has also made a new appointment of a second director of planning in order to deal with the backlog and the expected volume of planning applications in relation to wind energy.
Ms Buckley has attempted to address the huge legal costs bill accruing to the board through losing a large number of judicial review cases. The bill for 2022 was €9.9m, just under half the body’s annual budget. She has appointed a new director of legal affairs to manage cases, although the appointee did not come from a background with specific experience in planning.
Ms Buckley has also been critical of solicitors and judges in how they handle planning cases. Many in the legal world have seen this intervention as an attempt to blame the travails of the board on outside forces rather than dealing with the issue itself.
One unusual element of the “cleaning up” agenda undertaken by Ms Buckley was to appoint a senior counsel to review the internal investigation undertaken by the three management figures. Contrary to the standard criticism of an internal investigation — that it usually consists of a whitewash — this one was critical of practices and was welcomed by the staff and its union. Yet the new broom is already off to pastures new.
Ms Buckley, it was announced last month, will be leaving the board in September for what is effectively a promotion to the position of secretary general of the Department of the Environment.
Kenny’s departure means that the new chair will have a clean slate with which to work, as there has now been a complete change in senior management from when the controversies first came to light.