Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael)

When I sought speaking time on Monday I did so to defend my former county council, Galway County Council, for its record on planning over the course of the years when I was a member of the council. Thankfully, the timely publication of the planning review report on Tuesday afternoon has, in the main, rubbished the concerns of An Tasice. While this report will be further reviewed by an external body, it is worth noting some of the statements within the report as they relate to Galway County Council. The report states:

It is again simply not possible to agree with the claim made by An Taisce that the 25 decisions by the Board set out in the attached dossier collectively constitute an astonishing indictment of the credibility and competence of Galway County Council.

This was a claim made by An Taisce based on 25 planning applications out of a total of 11,000 applications processed in that period. The report further stated:

it is considered that the statistics put forward by An Taisce in support of their complaints do not of themselves suggest any deficiency in the competence of Galway County Council. In fact, the fuller statistical picture (i.e. the rate of appeal of Galway County Council decisions to An Bord Pleanála and the rate of overturn of decisions by the Board) suggests strong consistency of decision making between the Council and the Board. Similarly, it is impossible to conclude from the 25 cases cited that Galway County Council has systematically disregarded the provisions of its own development plan, its obligations under EU or national legislation or the submissions made by other agencies.

I refer to an important finding of the report:

It is considered that there is no evidence to support An Taisce's suggestion that individual officers of Galway County Council, including the County Manager, should be investigated. This is a very serious matter which, particularly in the context of the recent Mahon report, has the potential to unfairly tarnish and undermine the reputation and standing of personnel within the County Council.

I condemn the assertion made by An Taisce and I support the findings in the report regarding the officials of Galway County Council. The council has 30 members and from my experience as a member of the council, members work well together in the interests of their constituents. Fine Gael and Labour, together with independents, socialists, Sinn Féin and former members of the Progressive Democrats, have worked together to provide a majority control from 2004 to the present day, in two different pacts on Galway County Council. Non-members of these pacts, mainly Fianna Fáil members, worked well on decisions and in general, with the exception of budgetary matters, there were very few rows on the council. Therefore, I find it difficult to understand the relevance of the reference in the Fianna Fáil notice of motion regarding the controlling role of the council. The role of the majority on the council is to ensure a budget is passed and to elect the mayor or chairman. Councillors have no role in planning decisions, save for material contraventions, of which there are few and all EU and national legislation was clearly outlined to members during the preparation of the county development plan. I do not recall any great divisions between any of the parties on the council with regard to the county development plan or on the preparation of local area plans.

There were frictions in the preparation of the county development plan with regard to EU designations being implemented or inserted into the county development plan. All members were of the view that the EU had too much influence on policies. However, on the advice of the manager and the director of services for planning, all relevant legislation was inserted into the plans, including the production of an appropriate environmental assessment. In Connemara, where I served as a councillor, over 75% of the land mass, excluding afforested land, is designated under EU regulations and there will always be friction between designations and the wishes or the views of members of the local authority and the right of local people to live within their own communities.

In one case, a small rural-based industry applied for planning permission to extend its premises in order to grow and create employment. This was granted by the county council but was refused on appeal by An Bord Pleanála. The argument by An Taisce was that this business should close down and relocate to a zoned area within a neighbouring town. Most members of a local authority would be of the view that local small business should be permitted to expand.

I welcome the publication of the report and I condemn the suggestions of untoward behaviour by members of Galway County Council or officials of the council, as cited by An Taisce and I sincerely believe that the external report and review will uphold the findings of the planning report. There has been concern within Galway County Council that the reputation of the planning authority was damaged by the actions of An Taisce in reviewing only 25 out of 11,000 planning applications.

See this speech in context