Donegal planning corruption report still 'under consideration' after six years
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A report into alleged planning corruption in Donegal remains "under consideration" despite the sixth anniversary of its completion passing in June.
The Mulcahy Report was completed in June 2017 but has not been published, despite changes of minister and government.
Senior counsel Rory Mulcahy was appointed in 2015 to conduct a review into allegations by whistleblower Gerard Convie that there were severe irregularities in the local council's planning department in the early 2000s.
Mr Convie had challenged the findings of an internal review into his allegations, which questioned his motives, in the High Court. In 2013, the Department of Environment had to withdraw the review, overturn the findings, and apologise to Mr Convie.
Mr Convie had presented a dossier of 20 sample cases to the Government in 2010, prompting then Green Party environment minister, John Gormley, to launch an independent review.
That process was abandoned in 2011 with the change of government and his successor, Phil Hogan, ordered an internal review. That was completed in 2012 and concluded there was no evidence of irregularities and questioned Mr Convie’s motive in making the claims.
Mr Mulcahy delivered his report in June 2017, but it has yet to be published. A Department of Housing spokesperson told the that Housing Minister Darragh O'Brien will "bring the report to government in due course". It said "careful consideration" is being given to the report by Mr Mulcahy.
The Department said that as the report was a scoping review, Mr Mulcahy "did not form any conclusion as to the truth or otherwise of those allegations in his report", which are unproven.
The Department cited decisions by the Commissioner for Environmental Information in 2019 and the Information Commissioner in 2020 in relation to requests to publish the report, which it said "will also be taken into account". "In each of these cases, both the Commissioner for Environmental Information and the Information Commissioner decided not to grant access to the report.
The Office of the Information Commissioner decision stated "placing the details concerned in the public domain would significantly breach the rights to privacy of identifiable individuals". "Therefore, this is a matter that requires careful consideration given that the report details unproven allegations against named individuals."
Green Party TD Patrick Costello has held a "birthday" each year for the report and said that not releasing it risks repeating any issues which may have been uncovered.
"It's been over six years and if we don't learn the lessons, we're due to repeat them. With the issues we've seen in An Bord Pleanála, it's clear we're not learning lessons.
"If they can't release it, send it to the DPP. It's unbelievable that this would be under consideration for six years."