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Ireland's political and cultural magazine
32 July 2021
NEWS
regarding MH-C5-837 and withdrew from the
meeting as appropriate. This potential conflict of
interest is related to my occupation as
administrator in a construction company. Said
company, Glenveagh Homes Limited, own lands
that are the subject of zoning as referred to in the
above motion”.
The reference to the Glenveagh land in
question, MH-C5-837, is no longer available on
the published list containing details of each
submission made to MCC in relation to the
development plan. Of more than 2400
submissions listed, the particular file referred to
by Aisling Dempsey is absent. According to MCC,
the submission was withdrawn before it came to
any vote at the Special Planning Meeting.
“It was withdrawn by the submitter and
therefore was not considered at the Special
Planning meeting”, a spokesperson for the
Council told Village. MCC declined the request for
details of the lands in question.
Glenveagh Homes is among the largest owners
of zoned land in Meath and indeed neighbouring
counties and was fortunate that it escaped the
de-zoning measures which aected so many
other landowners. Aisling Dempsey is a personal
assistant to the chief executive of Glenveagh
Homes, Stephen Garvey.
Dempsey took the Fianna Fáil Council seat
vacated by Ronan McKenna, who is married to her
sister and has worked as a sales agent for
Glenveagh in County Meath for some years.
Defending its policy to de-zone 319 hectares of
land across the county as the housing crisis
worsens, MCC said that “considering climate
change as well as the proper planning and
sustainable development of the county, it was
considered necessary that significant de-zoning
as well as rezoning was required”.
Special Planning meeting of MCC against a
motion put forward by Fitzgerald who was
seeking to halt the raft of de-zonings proposed in
the draft development plan. Councillor Dempsey
made it clear that she supported the objection by
Jackie Maguire to the motion blocking the
de-zoning of lands across Meath. The CEO had
warned that there was little chance of developing
the lands for a variety of reasons.
“I accept the reasoning around the CEO’s
response, that it would be inappropriate to
include this as an objective. I see little point in
zoning in the optimum locations if we know there
is no hope of them actually being developed out.
But we need to do this on this occasion to comply
with legislation. Next time around we will have
stronger arguments to move zoning - use it or lose
it being employed until then. We need to know
annually how many houses are started, how
many are finished and how many of the
landholdings we zone as part of this CDP actually
progress”, Dempsey said in a note of her speech
issued to the media.
Written minutes distributed some time after
the meeting noted that Dempsey had declared a
conflict of interest in relation to a later motion
concerning lands owned by Glenveagh Homes,
which owns extensive and zoned lands across
county Meath.
In early December, Aisling Dempsey contacted
the Ethics registrar of the Council to declare a
conflict of interest that, she said, forced her to
withdraw from the Special Planning Meeting on
26 November 2020. Her letter stated:
“Dear Ethics Registrar, I write
to advise that at the Special
Planning Meeting on 26
November 2020, I disclosed a
potential conflict of interest
C
ouncillors, led by Fine Gael and Fianna
Fáil members, decided over recent
months to remove the residential
zoning of 319 hectares of land across
the county, ostensibly to conform
with climate-change policies.
A number of independent councillors who
opposed the de-zonings are threatening court
action if the Council management, led by chief
executive Jackie Maguire, does not give them
access to the live recordings of the Zoom
meetings during which the unprecedented
motions were passed in recent months. These
councillors rejected an oer that they could listen
to the recordings under supervision and only if
they inform the council in advance of the
particular items they wished to hear.
Independent Councillor Brian Fitzgerald and
Michael Gallagher of Sinn Féin are among the
members who have submitted an FOI request
seeking the Zoom recordings of all discussions
on the new development plan for the County.
Ironically, the councillors who are seeking the
recordings boycotted meetings when they were
refused access to them in late 2020, so they were
not present when significant de-zonings were
decided.
What is at stake in this controversy is not just
transparency as some property developers and
others in the industry have complained that the
reduction in the amount of zoned land will
contribute to an increase in prices for those
seeking to buy new
homes in the county.
Among thos e
councillors who
supported the de-zonings
was Aisling Dempsey,
daughter of former
environment minister,
Noel Dempsey, who also
attended some of the
virtual Zoom meetings.
He is a director of Noel
Dempsey Consulting and
a registered lobbyist. On
26 November last, Aisling
Dempsey spoke at a
Dempsey made it clear she supported the
objection by the Council CEO to the motion
blocking the de-zoning of lands across Meath.
There was little chance of developing the lands
for a variety of reasons.
Conflict of Interest in Meath
Aisling Dempsey voted for dezonings that will increase value of lands
owned by the company she works for
By Frank Connolly
