An Taisce has called for an independent regulator to be appointed to investigate the planning function of Dublin City Council.

Endemic corruption, chaotic sprawl, a legacy of ghost development and widespread environmental degradation — they are just some of the phrases used by An Taisce in its review of planning during the boom years.

The team behind an ambitious plan to create an international China trade hub the size of a town is aiming to have phase one up and running in three years.

The Celtic Tiger property bubble was fuelled by “endemic corruption” in a planning system which zoned enough land at the height of the boom to cater for a doubling of the entire population — up to 8m people.

City and county councils are biased in favour of granting planning permission to developments due to the revenues completed projects bring in, a new report concludes.

Donegal has the worst planning record in the country, An Taisce has claimed.

All 34 of the country's City and County Planning Authorities will come under fire in a new report to be released later this morning.

HERITAGE body An Taisce has welcomed the decision by Transport Minister Leo Varadkar to put a stop to what it described as “the Metro West folly”.

IF anything epitomises the near-death experience of Ireland’s banking system it must be the planning application to turn a once-thriving bank premises into a funeral home.

Plans for a multimillion-euro Las Vegas-style casino appear dead after new laws were announced ruling out large-scale gambling resorts.