Convie may Fnally get his SC’s investigation

March 2015 11

DONEGAL NEWS

ERARD Convie worked in Don-

egal County Council as a senior

planner for nearly 24 years. He

has claimed, in an aﬃdavit opened in

court, that during his tenure in the

Council there was bullying of planners

who sought to make decisions based

exclusively on the planning merits of

particular applications and that plan-

ning irregularities were perpetrated

by named oﬃcials at the highest level

in the Council – including by former

Manager Michael McLoone, who has ini-

tiated defamation proceedings against

Village magazine, as well as by named

Councillors.

Convie had a list of more than 20 “sus-

pect c ases ” i n t he co un ty i nclud ing t hat of

a petrol station which operated for over

10 years despite never having secured

planning permission and numerous

cases of houses being permitted in scenic

locations, in contravention of plans pro-

tecting local beauty, and sometimes for

people who knew relevant oﬃcials in

the Council. The allegations of planning

impropriety date back to decisions made

in the late 1990s.

A review into planning decisions made

by the Council was ordered by former

Environment Minister John Gormley in

2010 after Convie made representations

to him. It also covered Counties Carlow,

Cork, Galway and Meath; and Cork and

Dublin Cities.

However, the review was cut short

after the demise of the Fianna Fáil/Green

Party government.

A report on the review in 2012 con-

cluded that there was no evidence to

back up the whistleblower’s claims on

Donegal. Minister Jan O’Sullivan told

the Dáil, that: “ … the complainant

[Convie] has failed at any stage to pro-

duce evidence of wrong-doing in Donegal

Council’s planning department”. But Mr

Convie challenged the ﬁndings of the

report in the High Court, which ruled

in his favour. The whitewash report

was withdrawn and the Department of

the Environment apologised and paid

Convie compensation.

Although six other counties were also

part of the departmental review Conv-

ie’s Donegal allegations alone purport to

give any evidence of actual impropriety,

indeed ‘corruption’.

The Department was always therefore

going to have to treat them diﬀerently.

After advice from the Attorney General

w as ﬁ r st d el ay ed a nd t he n ﬁ n al ly dige sted

the Minister for the Environment, Alan

Kelly has now ﬁnally announced that

a senior counsel will go to Donegal to

investigate the allegations.

Somewhat disconcertingly, Village,

Convie and local newspapers includ-

ing the Donegal Democrat were unable

to conﬁrm an Irish Independent report

to this eﬀect and it is not clear what the

terms of reference for the senior counsel

will be, or how wide ranging his powers

– something that will partially depend

on the terms of the Act under which he

is appointed.

An [unsigned] recent document

obtained under FOI, shows the Minister

was considering options: “The Depart-

ment wrote to the [Attorney General’s

Oﬃce] on 28th May 2014, following the

approval of both Ministers Hogan and

O’Sullivan to seek advice on the option

of appointment by the Minister for the

Environment, Community and Local

Government of an authorised person

under Section 224 of the Local Govern-

ment Act 2001 in relation to the Donegal

planning matters”.

This provides that: “The Minister may

request an authorised person to pre-

pare a report for the Minister in relation

to the performance of any of the func-

tions of one or more local authorities”.

This is not at all clear or precise though

it is possible that a “report” may be more

stringent than a “review”.

Convie has written to Local Govern-

ment Minister Paudie Coﬀey who is now

handling the matter, demanding:

• the terms of reference for the

investigation;

• the legislation, [Section etc] under

which this person has been, or shall

be, appointed;

• what powers this person shall have, not

least in respect of being able to inter-

view all relevant personnel;

• what penalties there shall be for per-

sons who do not co-operate with this

appointed Senior Counsel;

• that all the matters he has complained

about to the Department shall be

included in this investigation, includ-

ing attempts to influence An Bord

Pleanála, the conduct of named civil

servants who dealt with his complaints

and his complaints about planning in

Letterkenny.

Meanwhile it is unclear what is hap-

pening with the independent report

into the other six planning authori-

ties that was expected in June 2014

to “be concluded soon”; or on the possi-

ble extension of the independent report

into other counties, notably Wicklow.

The Department says a report by

McCabe, Durney, Barnes Planning will

be published shortly “after the Minister

has considered its contents”.

The unsigned document does, how-

ever, seem to give some clues as to how

the counties outside of Donegal may

be treated: Consideration should be

“given to an initial Departmental or non-

statutory independent appointment by

the Minister/Department to [help

verify allegations made with support-

ing documentation] informing the

next steps including any terms of refer-

ence for a statutory appointment’’.

This suggests a preliminary fact-ﬁnd-

ing exercise may be intended.

It is likely the “planning reviews” pro-

posed for these counties will address not

impropriety but bad practice.

Whether the report, review or

investigation into Donegal addresses

impropriety will say much about this

administration’s willingness to address

probity in planning. •

Not clear what form investigation into planner’s wide-ranging allegations

of impropriety in Donegal planning will take. By Michael Smith

It is likely

the “planning

reviews”

proposed for

the 6 other

counties will

address not

impropriety

but bad

practice.

Whether the

investigation

into Donegal

addresses

impropriety

will say much

about this

adminis-

tration’s

willingness

to address

probity

in planning

“

Convie may nally get

his SC’s investigation