'Urgent' review of An Bord Pleanála decision-making starts early
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A review of An Bord Pleanála by the Office of the Planning Regulator (OPR) has started ahead of schedule in response to the recent controversies to hit the planning body.
The routine review has been brought forward due to the controversy over the resignation of former vice chair Paul Hyde and the referral of Senior Counsel Remy Farrell's report to the DPP.
The terms of reference have now been announced, and the chief executive of the OPR Niall Cussen stated that it was “taking account of the urgent need to progress measures aimed at restoring public confidence in An Bord Pleanála”.
The review is operating to a tight timetable with the first part due to be completed by October 3, and the second by 30 November.
Two senior planning officials from Scotland, Paul Cackette and John McNairney, will be involved in both phases. Senior counsel Conleth Bradley will be involved in the first phase also.
Their inquiry is set to touch on a number of areas that have been the focus of allegations since the controversies around the board first blew up last April.
Among the areas to be examined are:
- The decision making practices of the board having regard to its functions pursuant of the 2000 Act from a governance, procedural and legal perspective;
- The organisation of the work of An Bord Pleanála, including the allocation and assignment of case files;
- The process of issuing reports with recommendations and subsequent directions and decisions;
- Procedures for governance, identification, recording and monitoring of potential conflicts of interest in the course of the board’s decision making.
The terms of reference also note that the work will be carried out with consideration for “the need to progress measures aimed at restoring public confidence in An Bord Pleanála without delay".
The terms of reference are much wider than those which were set out for the report conducted by Remy Farrell SC, which the Minister for Housing referred last week to the DPP.
The OPR review will be in a position within these terms to examine cases that have been reported in the and elsewhere in which various issues were highlighted. These included a pattern of repeatedly ignoring recommendations for the planning inspector, the repeated presence of the same board members deciding on some kinds of appeals or applications, and repeated use of two rather than three board members to make decisions on particular kinds of cases.
Other allegations that have arisen deal with matters such as senior figures within An Bord Pleanála making statements that could be interpreted as compromising their quasi-judicial functions to deal with all cases with an absence of bias or the perception of bias.