Mahon Tribunal: fourth interim report: The chairman of the planning tribunal, Judge Alan Mahon, is seeking a drastic reduction of the tribunal's workload and a substantial increase in its legal staff.
Judge Mahon has asked the Government to change the tribunal's terms of reference so that it would no longer have to investigate all allegations of planning corruption.
In the tribunal's fourth interim report - and his first - the chairman also asks for additional staff, saying the tribunal is currently "stretched to breaking point". However, he warns that even with the appointment of more staff, the tribunal still has another 10 or 11 years to run.
Under an amended remit he has suggested, the tribunal would be empowered to discontinue an investigation, or not to have one at all in certain circumstances.
These might include situations involving an elderly or sick witness, and investigations that might take too long, cost too much or would be unlikely to produce a clear result.
Judge Mahon believes the changes will allow the tribunal to "concentrate" its inquiry on areas that will lead to a comprehensive final report on planning corruption. The tribunal has already sent its request for permission to employ more legal staff to the Minister for the Environment.
Previous requests for more resources met with resistance in Government before being approved. "If the tribunal is to carry out its remit efficiently and in as economical a fashion as possible, the tribunal believes it requires the additional resources already sought in order to do this," Judge Mahon writes.
If the tribunal does not receive the requested additional resources, it will continue past the current estimated completion date of 2015, he warns.
According to Judge Mahon, the current terms of reference do not give the tribunal the "discretion" it needs to decide which acts of corruption to investigate.
At present, it cannot take into account considerations such as: the level of corruption alleged; the likely duration of any investigation or its likely cost; the likely effect an investigation would have on ongoing inquiries; and the likelihood of an investigation producing evidence on which the tribunal could reach conclusions.
Judge Mahon said: "The tribunal believes that the obligation imposed upon it by the current terms of reference to investigate all such matters as fall within its terms of reference places a very onerous burden upon the tribunal and stretches the resources of the tribunal to breaking point."
"The tribunal believes that if it was afforded greater discretion to determine which lines of inquiry it should pursue, and which should not be proceeded with, it could optimise on the resources presently available to it and shorten the duration of its inquiry."
The chairman requests the capacity to "forgo" an investigation, where this would take too long or "hamper or delay other and more pressing and advanced lines of inquiry". The report sets out the planned schedule of the tribunal in coming years. The Tom Gilmartin/Quarryvale hearings start again today and are expected to finish by the end of July.
After the summer, the tribunal will then resume hearings into the ownership of Jackson Way, the company at the centre of corruption allegations surrounding its land at Carrickmines in south Dublin.
By early next year, the tribunal hopes to have hearings into Mr Frank Dunlop's allegations of corruption in the rezoning of Quarryvale under way, and this module is scheduled to last "a number of months". The tribunal would then resume hearings in a number of "inter-linked modules" centred on land deals around Dublin involving businessman Mr Jim Kennedy, lawyer Mr John Caldwell and Mr Liam Lawlor.
Judge Mahon admitted that the tribunal, in an estimate sent to the Government last year, under-estimated the time it needed to complete these modules. It now believes the inter-linked modules will not be finished until 2007 or 2008, rather than 2006 as originally believed.
As a result, the tribunal will be unable to embark on any further public hearings on any other matters until 2009. It estimates these matters will take three to four years to deal with, while dealing with costs, submissions, challenges and other matters will add to the overall time needed.
On this basis, Judge Mahon estimates that the tribunal needs another 10 or 11 years (bringing it to 2014 or 2015) to complete its currently identified workload.
This estimate is based on the assumption that the tribunal will continue to have three members and that its current terms of reference remain unchanged.
Judge Mahon also notes in his report that the vast majority of complaints the tribunal has received fall outside its terms of reference.
According to the chairman, the capacity of the tribunal's legal team is "stretched to its limits, if not beyond".
