Fallout from the Mahon tribunal

A number of local authorities, including Meath County Council, could yet be subjected to reopened inquiries into planning issues as the fallout from the Mahon Tribunal report continues to reverberate around the country. Six planning investigations set up under the last government by Green Party minister John Gormley focusing on alleged planning irregularities in Dublin and Cork city councils, and local authorities in Meath, Cork, Carlow and Galway, were cancelled by the new Minister for the Environment & Local Government, Phil Hogan, after just a few months in office. While there were no specific allegations of corruption in any of the local authority areas, Mr Gormley established the inquiries to examine if the councils concerned were adhering to development plans or if councillors had been zoning too much land for development. The intention was that an independent panel of planning experts would be established to carry out the investigation but the new minister truncated the review last summer, citing the substantial cost to the exchequer of appointing external consultants, preferring instead to concentrate on intenals reviews by the Dept of the Environment & Local Government. However, there is now growing pressure in the wake of Mahon and the huge focus on the Irish planning system to reverse this decision and already senior government figures, including Minister for Transport Leo Varadkar, are saying this will have to be considered. The minister stressed these planning inquires weren't into corruption, but would focus instead on development plans and whether or not councillors in the various local authorities made correct decisions. Former minister John Gormley had wanted to subject the councils concerned to independent scrutiny after receiving what were termed "substantial complaints" from An Taisce, among others, about planning practices. In light of the very serious findings of the Mahon tribunal report, the minister may well be forced into a u-turn when there are questions left hanging over the planning process in any part of the country. Indeed, the Mahon tribunal has recommended that a new office of an independent planning regulator should be established to enforce compliance with planning policy and undertake inquiries into the planning functions of local authorities. This office, free from any political influence, could take a second look at controversial rezoning decisions that have been taken in the past. The findings of the Mahon tribunal have merely confirmed what many people have suspected over a long number of years - that the planning process in Ireland has for years been open to abuse and corruption. Sadly, greed and the abuse of power have become part and parcel of a system where the public interest, in some cases, has come second to the demands of developers and corrupt politicians. It is clear that there is a need for radical reform of this country's planning regime and the necessity for an independent and publicly accountable planning regulator should be self-evident. The cosy relationships that previously existed between landowners, developers, planners and politicians, which provides a seedbed for corrupt practices, cannot be allowed to continue and the Mahon tribunal's important findings and recommendations on defeating corruption must be part of a robust framework that will govern future practices in the area of planning. Judge Alan Mahon remarked that corruption was endemic in public life. While we certainly know that this was the case in the planning system in Dublin, the reality is that most politicians are people of integrity and are motivated by a sense of public duty. However, the public's view is that the scale of corruption in this country is probably larger than it actually is, and politicians everywhere now have a considerable task on their hands to convince a sceptical populace that corruption is not rife. Reform and regaining public trust in the planning process will be a big challenge, but a good starting point would be the restarting of the independent investigations into planning processes in the six local authority areas.