Former deputy chair of An Bord Pleanála Paul Hyde handed two-month jail sentence

Paul Hyde has lodged an appeal and the matter is now likely to go to the circuit court

Former deputy chairman of An Bord Pleanála Paul Hyde. Picture: Dan Linehan

The former Deputy Chairman of An Bord Pleanála, Paul Hyde, has received two jail sentences of two months each for breaches of planning laws, with the sentencing judge stating that "ethical standards in public life matter".

Mr Hyde, 50, had pleaded guilty last Tuesday to two offences contrary to Section 147 of the Planning and Development Act 2000, with Judge James McNulty hearing that one small parcel of land in Cork city—known as a "ransom strip"—had not been declared by Mr Hyde in 2015, and that in 2018 he had failed to declare properties which he still owned but to which receivers had been appointed.