Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 14 July 2022

Public Accounts Committee

2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
An Bord Pleanála - Financial Statements 2020
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage

9:30 am

Mr. Dave Walsh:

As I mentioned to Deputy Carthy, for every case that is opened, we get legal advice from our team to assess the strength and potential weaknesses within the board's processes and decisions. On the basis of that advice, if we feel it would be more expedient for the board and taxpayer to say there may have been an error, we hold up our hands. When we are dealing with 3,000 cases per year, sometimes errors are made, there are omissions or insufficient justification is provided in relation to a decision. Rather than pursuing those and incurring huge costs, we concede those cases. If any advice comes back from those kinds of cases or cases that have rulings at the end of the process, we build those back in. We have an inspectorate-----