Mick Clifford: Probe shows that creeping politicisation damaged trust in An Bord Pleanála

Allegations about An Bord Pleanála have been tumbling out ever since The Ditch website reported on circumstances around the refusal of planning for a proposed development in Blackpool, Cork.

On July 8, there was a sigh of relief in some quarters when Paul Hyde resigned. The deputy chair of An Bord Pleanála wrote to Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien tendering his resignation. He has been under pressure for three months, with a drip feed of revelations emerging from the planning board about malpractice and misgovernance.

It had all begun with the Cork-born architect’s alleged conflicts of interest. The Ditch website reported on a decision by Mr Hyde concerning a proposed development in Blackpool, Cork City, in which he failed to declare an interest in a company that owned lands nearby. Thereafter, the allegations began tumbling out at a rate of knots, and many of them had Mr Hyde as the central figure.