An Bord Pleanála chair refuses to apologise during PAC questioning
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The chair of An Bord Pleanála has repeatedly declined to apologise for the actions of the body he oversees, and a series of scandals in which it finds itself.
Dave Walsh, the chair of the body since 2018, told the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on three separate occasions on Thursday morning that he will not apologise for the board, citing a number of ongoing reviews into the board which have yet to be finalised.
Mr Walsh’s much-anticipated appearance before the PAC comes amid a period of unprecedented turmoil for An Bord Pleanála in the wake of the resignation of its deputy chair Paul Hyde last week.
Asked by Sinn Féin’s Imelda Munster whether his previous assertion from 2021 still stands that the would “challenge anyone” to demonstrate a lack of fair hearing for all appeals to the board, Mr Walsh said: “You have to remember the context the board was operating in”.
Asked would he would apologise he replied, “at this point, no”.
When pressed for an apology over the fact that the board has “no recourse” to change any of its decisions subsequently found to be flawed, Mr Walsh said: “Until we have the results of the review I’m not prepared to reply.”
Later in the hearing, when quizzed over the fact An Bord Pleanála’s legal fees have spiralled consistently to the region of €8m per annum, a third of its budget, Mr Walsh acknowledged his unhappiness with that fact, but said: “I don’t know if it merits an apology.”
He said that An Bord Pleanála’s internal review of some 200 of its cases, sparked following allegations of conflicts of interest being made against Mr Hyde, will be available by the end of this month. The board is also considering how exactly case files were allocated among its nine-person board.
This question had arisen after it emerged that Mr Hyde and certain other board members had decided a seemingly disproportionate number of planning decisions relating to strategic developments and telecommunications masts.
“Subject to legal advice, we will publish it,” Mr Walsh said of the internal review.
Regarding the fact that judicial reviews of Strategic Housing Developments have exploded in number over the past three years, with An Bord Pleanála losing more than 90% of the cases decided to date, Sinn Féin’s Matt Carthy asked did Mr Walsh not have “an obligation to identify the problem”.
Mr Carthy added that he believes the chair’s position is “untenable, and I can’t believe you haven’t reached that conclusion yourself”. Mr Walsh replied that “lessons are learned” from every judicial review decision.