Irish Examiner view: Can changes restore planning board's battered reputation?

Proposed new ethics and compliance unit will aim to address potential conflicts of interest

An Bord Pleanála has been under intense scrutiny.

It’s been a rocky few months for An Bord Pleanála, the nation’s independent planning body.

It lost deputy chairman Paul Hyde back in July amid inquiries into his planning decisions, and the organisation has remained under intense scrutiny since. Little wonder that chairman Dave Walsh acknowledged the impact of that scrutiny in a recent mail to staff in the embattled state body.

Consequently, the report into An Bord Pleanála from the planning regulator, which was published on Tuesday, is a timely one. Its recommendations include some valuable bulwarks against future problems, such as a proposed new ethics and compliance unit to address potential conflicts of interest.

This is a rational provision when it comes to any statutory body, particularly one charged with responsibility for an area as emotive as planning. The appearance of that provision begs an obvious question, however: Why did it take until now for this to surface even as a proposal, when it should be a cornerstone of any organisation operating in this area?

Safeguarding against even the appearance of future non-compliance, let alone the possibility of corruption, has to be one of the organising principles of a body charged with overseeing the planning process. This is a process, after all, with such potential for contention that one of the other recommendations in the report calls for a new legal unit to support the decision-making of An Bord Pleanála.

This is itself an acknowledgement of how often the board’s decisions face legal challenges brought by powerful operators in the planning area.

Will these changes help to restore the organisation’s battered reputation? One certainly hopes so. With the country in the grip of an accommodation crisis, with investment funds snapping up houses and apartments, and with the lack of new homes being built, distrust of An Bord Pleanála would poison the well even further. 

If people feel they cannot rely on this organisation do its job properly, then confidence in the planning system — already shaky — will take yet another blow.