Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister has appointed an independent senior counsel. It is an independent review. It is not the Minister's review. I appreciate the concerns the Members of the House have on these issues. Under the terms of reference, Mr. Remy Farrell SC was requested to provide a report to the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, within a period of six weeks. The Minister will consider those matters on receipt of the senior counsel's report.

The Office of the Planning Regulator has announced that it is commencing a review into An Bord Pleanála's systems and procedures as part of its reviews programme. The Planning Regulator has indicated that details of the Office of the Planning Regulator's approach to this review will be published in the near future. The Government is aware that judicial reviews have been initiated or are ongoing in relation to certain An Bord Pleanála decisions.

On 6 May, the Minister requested a report from the An Bord Pleanála chairperson setting out the chairperson's opinion on the allegations against Mr. Hyde, in accordance with the chairperson's powers under section 110(2) of the Planning and Development Act. The chairperson responded on 9 May that he first needed to gather and analyse all relevant information in order to form an opinion that the conduct of an ordinary board member has been such as to bring the board into disrepute, prior to exercising his chairperson's powers under section 110(2). He also confirmed that Mr. Hyde had agreed to absent himself from his duties as deputy chairperson of the board for the time being, on a strictly without prejudice basis. The chairperson has indicated to the Department that he should shortly be in a position to provide an update to the Minister in respect of the ongoing process.

The difficulty about having a debate right now would be the possibility of prejudicing the report itself and the content of the report. That is the challenge right now in terms of having a debate. The Government will keep the matter under review prior to the recess. We need to balance the genuine interest Members have and the public interest with the need to try to get some of these reports completed. If we can keep the matter under review, I would be open to doing that with Deputies.

On the French navy, I understand this is not to take place. I did not have the full and specific details on it coming into the House. I will ask the Whip if we can have a debate on that, or more generally about the whole area of military exercises and the compatibility of such exercises with marine life. We are all interested in protecting marine life. I am aware Deputy Collins would be a long-standing advocate for marine protected areas. It is also about protecting fisheries into the future and marine biodiversity. I would be very much in favour of having a wider debate on that. I am sure the Deputy would endorse that.

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