Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 3 October 2019

Public Accounts Committee

2018 Financial Statements of An Bord Pleanála

9:00 am

Mr. Dave Walsh:

Indeed. There is a very strong communication link. Again, for any board decision where we overturn a recommendation of the inspector, we document the reasons. We state in our decision that the board does not accept the recommendation because of the following reasons. We try to explain it, and that becomes a matter of public record. The other point is that, as the Chairman mentioned, the board has many skills and we are multidisciplinary. The whole point is that planning is not an exact science. It is a holistic approach to the question whether something is the right development. That is where our system, as opposed to other systems whereby there may be just one person who is a planner making appeal decisions, is a more transparent and robust process.

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