Minister asks senior counsel to probe An Bord Pleanála conflict of interest allegations

“I am aware of allegations published in relation to a board member of An Bord Pleanála recently, allegations which have been denied by the member concerned,” Mr O’Brien said in a statement. He added that it would be inappropriate to comment further due to his appointment of the senior counsel.

The Irish Examiner has reported on the emergence of allegations that the deputy chair of the board, Paul Hyde, did not declare a conflict of interest he had when making a planning decision on a proposed development in Cork’s Blackpool.

Further reports on The Ditch website suggested that Mr Hyde also had a conflict of interest in a number of planning decisions in relation to an engineering firm which had done work on proposed developments that had come before the board.

When asked whether An Bord Pleanála had any comment on the latest allegations, a spokesperson said: “the board has no comment for the present".

Earlier in the Dáil, the Taoiseach replied to a question from the Social Democrats TD Cian O’Callaghan on the matter, saying: "There may be issues there that need to be examined further and clarified. I think it would be in everybody’s interest if the situation was clarified. I will ask the minister again about the issue Deputy O’Callaghan has raised.”

The Irish Examiner has reported that the Planning Regulator has been in contact with the board as a result of the allegations, which also include a failure by Mr Hyde to fully declare his property interests. 

The regulator’s office has no remit to investigate specific allegations in a planning authority, but a spokesperson confirmed that contact was made “to confirm procedures are in place with regard to the making of relevant returns from board members”.

The matter centres on a decision by a sub-division of the board, chaired by Mr Hyde, to deny planning permission for a development of 191 apartments on the old Hewitts distillery site in Blackpool in Cork city. The application, by the company Eichsfeld Ltd, which is owned by Cork businesspeople, was made under the Strategic Housing Development (SHD) legislation, a fast-track planning process which bypasses the local authority and goes straight to ABP.

The minutes of the meeting on March 9 at which the decision was taken show that no conflict of interest was declared by any of the board members. However, it later emerged that Mr Hyde has a 25% shareholding in a company that owns a site which is 50m away from the distillery site. His father owns the remainder of the shares in the company, H2O. 

Mr Hyde had not mentioned the Blackpool site or any other property interests when filing a standard declaration of interests in January this year. 

Declaration of interests issues are the remit of the Standards In Public Office Commission (SIPO). A Spokesperson said SIPO was not in a position to say whether or not a complaint had been received relating to An Bord Pleanála.