Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

At this stage I have run out of fingers and toes to count the scandals about An Bord Pleanála that have been revealed by The Ditch. There have been multiple incidents of what certainly look like clear conflicts of interest not being declared. There is a pattern of inspectors' reports being disregarded to favour the wishes of developers. There have been reports of at least three incidents of inspectors being pressurised to change their reports to bring them into line with the interests of developers. The director of planning is reported to have participated in a meeting of institutional landlords, giving them advice in regard to applications to An Bord Pleanála. There are question marks over the appointment of two members of the board, including a sister of a Fianna Fáil Deputy nominated by the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association and the deputy chairperson of the board, who was nominated by the Irish Rural Dwellers Association at a time when it was defunct and did not exist as an organisation and could not have had any nominating rights for more than a year. The very latest is a story published yesterday on The Ditch about the director of planning having an issue in terms of ruling on applications that relate to her husband.

What is the Government going to do about this? It has announced a review, but it is a review into the actions of one member of the board in respect of just three specifics. That is simply not good enough. Does the Taoiseach not accept that, at the very least, the review needs to be expanded to include all the operations of the board, including the role of these so-called nominating bodies?

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