An investigation into governance issues at An Bord Pleanála has ended without the Minister for Housing being asked to consider whether there was “stated misbehaviour” in any case.
The inquiry by senior counsel Lorna Lynch also found there was no requirement for the planning board to initiate disciplinary action against any current or former employee.
“I accept those conclusions in full,” An Bord Pleanála’s chairman Peter Mullan said in an interview on Sunday evening in which he said he was precluded for legal reasons from publishing Ms Lynch’s report.
“This report has now reached its conclusions and I’m very much hopeful that it will be a line in the sand in relation to the reputational concerns that people had,” he added.
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“As far as I’m aware – I was interim chair for six months, I’ve been in the role for a year in a full-time basis – there has been no question marks over the present integrity of the board or any reputational concerns in relation to it.”
The disclosure of the barrister’s summary findings in a 130-page report comes two years after she was asked to investigate “matters of concern”, in the wake of turmoil over claims of impropriety in some of the board’s work.
The board rushed out her summary conclusions on Sunday night after The Irish Times approached it with questions about a leaked draft statement on the Lynch report that the board planned to release next Wednesday.
One issue under examination was an unnamed board member’s involvement as decision-maker in case files where they were alleged to have been in a personal relationship with “one or more” unnamed board employees who worked on the same files.
Based on the available evidence, Ms Lynch found “there were not sufficient grounds” to ask the Minister to consider whether there was stated misbehaviour by the board member.
The barrister made an unspecified conditional finding on one aspect of these matters that was dependent on the period of the relationship in question.
However, Mr Mullan found there were no grounds in that finding for a referral to the Minister. The chairman was “not a position to investigate this any further” and the unnamed board member in question was no longer in An Bord Pleanála.
Controversy in the planning body led to the 2022 resignation of then deputy chairman Paul Hyde and new law to overhaul the board and rename it An Coimisiún Pleanála.
Hyde received a suspended prison sentence for failing to declare property interests, after two guilty pleas.
The Lynch report went last July to Mr Mullan but findings were never made public. Summary conclusions on six governance areas show she found no need to refer any current board member to the Minister.
Without naming Hyde, summary conclusions said there were sufficient grounds to refer him to the Minister over his conviction and failure to declare land ownership before its sale.
However, An Bord Pleanála found such a referral would serve no purpose as Hyde was no longer a board member. Hyde declined to comment on the report.
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