This article is from page 26 of the 2009-11-24 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 26 JPG
CLARE County Council is to be asked by Kerry County Council to support a motion to have rural rep- resentatives appointed to An Bord Pleanala, as proposed by Kilbaha- based Irish Rural Dwellers Associa- intone
The IRDA has posted a booklet on this topic to every elected member in Ireland and at this month’s meet- ing of the Kerry local authority, Cllr Jackie Healy-Rae (Ind) called for the association to be supported.
The IRDA has also called for a sworn enquiry into how it is that farming and rural issues are official- ly represented on the board by two senior planning inspectors. “These inspectors were employees of the board up to the minute they were appointed on the board by Minister Noel Dempsey on January 1, 2002. They will be there until 2012 with a possible reappointment until 2017; at least 10 years and possibly 15, of rural representation on the board, by planners. These are the bare facts and from a rural perspective they are shocking enough in themselves but what is even more disturbing are the step-by-step details of the ap- pointment process as explained by the IRDA in their booklet,’ said Clir
Healy-Rae.
The IRDA maintains that An Bord Pleanala is inextricably linked to the Department of the Environment, and as the department controls the ap- pointment process as well as all other aspects of planning, the board can- not be considered truly independent, is not a balanced group with diverse backgrounds and is, in the view of the IRDA, undemocratic in its con- stitution.
‘These are very serious statements, but they have never been challenged since they were published. They paint a picture of an appeals process which is functioning in the exact opposite way to what was intended when it was established by the Oireachtas in 1977,’ said the councillor.
“An Bord Pleanala doesn’t live on a different planet. Councillors who spend up to 80 and 90 per cent of their time on planning matters must have total confidence that decisions appealed to the board are going to a completely independent body, whose members are a balanced group with diverse backgrounds and a_ body which is democratic in its constitu- tion – not the other way around.”
Kerry County Council also agreed to write to all of the other council’s in the country seeking support for the IRDA proposal.