Ombudsman to focus on planning irregularities

THE Ombudsman is about to get tough on planning laws.

His office has warned local authorities that he will investigate all complaints about failures to enforce new legislation. This follows the revelation that Offaly County Council took three years to make a decision on an unauthorised quarry, and only refused permission after he had intervened.

"I also intend to monitor closely their effectiveness in application of the new legislation," said Kevin Murphy.

The warning will be contained in his 2002 annual report, to be launched in Dublin tomorrow.

Strict laws introduced in 2002 will put pressure on planning authorities to take illegal developers to court within six months.

The Ombudsman has warned all authorities which give developers too much time to provide information they run the risk of encouraging unauthorised developments.

The case which prompted such a stern warning involved Offaly County Council, which failed to make a decision about a quarry for over three years. Following complaints from locals, the developer applied for planning for an extended quarry in April 1999. The council demanded an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).

But the council still had not made a final ruling three years later, telling the Ombudsman it could not reach a decision because it had not received the EIS from the developer.

Mr Murphy is highly critical of Offaly County Council's handling of this application, and its failure to insist that the developer provide them with the EIS. The council insisted it could not make a decision without the EIS. But following pressure from the Ombudsman, it eventually refused planning for the extension in September 2002 without the EIS.

The Ombudsman said there was no good reason for the delay. Offaly County Council did not respond to Mr Murphy's criticism when contacted yesterday.

The Office of the Ombudsman successfully investigated other cases in 2002, including the payment of massive back-tax to widows and widowers, and the Blind Welfare Allowance back-payment.

A complaint from a retired teacher about the Department of Education's delay in processing his application for the purchase of retrospective service for pension purposes was also investigated.

This led to several hundred teachers getting tax relief.