Irish Examiner view: Public must have faith in the system

The matter centres on a decision to deny planning permission for a development of 191 apartments in Blackpool in Cork City.

There are many aspects of governance, including the need for economic growth and the essential development of our housing needs, which require near-total trust on behalf of our citizens in the systems which have been created to manage these.

Any breakdown of that trust immediately jeopardises people’s faith in those systems and erodes the public’s confidence that decisions supposedly made in their interest can be taken at face value.

The current allegations against a senior member of An Bord Pleanála involving a potential conflict of interest threaten to endanger public belief in the planning system; that public conviction could be further eroded by an audit of hundreds of planning decisions.

Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien has already appointed senior counsel Remy Farrell to conduct that audit and the minister will face questions in the Dáil this week, while An Bord Pleanála itself is facing calls to attend various Oireachtas committees to explain its governance structures.

Given the many planning scandals which have beset this country down the years, we have sought, since as far back as 1963, to make the planning process more transparent and, let’s face it, honest and without undue political or personal influence. 

We have had tribunals and much more down the years which led to the establishment of An Bord Pleanála and an independent planning regulator, but there is still room for ambiguity when it comes to planning.

It is essential that these latest allegations are dealt with swiftly because transparency and clear systems of governance provide the public with confidence in the system. Without them, all planning issues come into the realm of uncertainty and speculation — neither of which is good for the development of the country as a whole.

In the current economic environment, the need for a credible planning system is greater than it ever was and the public deserves nothing less. Such a system would only strengthen our democracy and the faith of the public in it.

If the public is to have faith in the system, it must be totally trustworthy.