Results 5,061-5,080 of 10,791 for speaker:Matt Carthy

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 (14 Jul 2022)

Matt Carthy: I am not asking whether there was corruption but whether Mr. Walsh accepts that there was scope for corruption in the way in which these matters have been handled up to now.

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 (14 Jul 2022)

Matt Carthy: Does Mr. Walsh not consider it a failure on his part that it is taking all of these investigations to investigate, review and audit all of these matters and that there was no system in place to identify and address issues as they arose?

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 (14 Jul 2022)

Matt Carthy: Here is the problem. If anybody, regardless of how powerful they are or anything else, has a fundamental difficulty with a decision made by An Bord Pleanála, the only recourse available to that person is to take a judicial review, JR, or legal action. There is no other mechanism. Mr. Walsh has said that in respect of cases regarding which very serious issues have been raised. Even if...

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 (14 Jul 2022)

Matt Carthy: Yes.

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 (14 Jul 2022)

Matt Carthy: Mr. Walsh described himself as almost the chair and the CEO. He is also the Accounting Officer, which is what we are interested in.

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 (14 Jul 2022)

Matt Carthy: Will the Comptroller and Auditor General remind me how many Departments and bodies this committee has oversight of?

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 (14 Jul 2022)

Matt Carthy: This is the problem. Reading through the transcript, we see that several members from across different political parties raised issues on 13 May 2021 with regard to the soaring legal costs, the scope for conflicts of interest and the potential trends that were emerging. Members dealing on a part-time basis with oversight of 250 bodies were able to ask him about all those issues, and his...

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 (14 Jul 2022)

Matt Carthy: The courts have found that the board was finding on an illegal basis in respect of those decisions. Despite that, the board continued to find on the exact same basis and was repeatedly taken to court where it repeatedly lost, to the point where €8 million per year, one third of the budget, was spent on legal fees. Mr. Walsh did not say "Stop".

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 (14 Jul 2022)

Matt Carthy: My time is running short. I put it to Mr. Walsh that as Accounting Officer he had an obligation to identify an emerging problem, an obligation to ensure case files were being distributed to board members on a random basis and an obligation to ensure this body would not bring the planning process into disrepute, which is exactly what has happened. Nobody has confidence in An Bord...

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 (14 Jul 2022)

Matt Carthy: Our problem is the taxpayer is bearing the brunt of all of this. We have a systems failure of the highest order.

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 (14 Jul 2022)

Matt Carthy: There has been much talk about the strategic housing developments and the implications they have had. In a previous role, would it be correct to say Mr. Walsh was involved in drafting the legislation underpinning the strategic housing developments?

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 (14 Jul 2022)

Matt Carthy: To answer the question, Mr. Walsh was-----

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 (14 Jul 2022)

Matt Carthy: Mr. Walsh's position today has been that the legal costs that have arisen out of the board's decisions in relation to the State's strategic housing developments were almost beyond the board's control because it was making a decision based on the legislation-----

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 (14 Jul 2022)

Matt Carthy: Yes, but legislation which Mr. Walsh was involved in drafting and on which he was charged with advising that same Government and Oireachtas.

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 (14 Jul 2022)

Matt Carthy: Okay. We were talking about the issues of the challenges and the areas that have been points of concern. I want to give an example of a case. As this case has concluded, there is no issue. It is in relation to a telecommunications mast in my own constituency that I am aware of in a small village called Glaslough. Monaghan County Council refused planning permission for that. I have the...

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 (14 Jul 2022)

Matt Carthy: As I say, this matter has been resolved. The direction states, "Furthermore, in deciding not to accept the Inspector's recommendation to refuse permission on visual and built heritage ... grounds the Board considered that on balance the location of the site did not affect or injure the character or setting of the Glaslough Architectural Conservation Area" and so on. At a previous meeting...

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 (14 Jul 2022)

Matt Carthy: Mr. Walsh might let me finish.

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 (14 Jul 2022)

Matt Carthy: I did not say that at all.

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 (14 Jul 2022)

Matt Carthy: I spoke in respect of potential anomalies with regard to the make up of the board and any connections they might have. There are only two sets of people who have the capacity to learn of those anomalies. One is investigative journalists. They did their job. The other is the Accounting Officer of An Bord Pleanála. I must ask again, in the context of the myriad allegations that have...

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 (14 Jul 2022)

Matt Carthy: That is so.