Frank McDonald, Environment Editor, finds that the CAG's report highlights discrepancies in the quality of planning decisions
For years, there has been an official obsession with the number of appeals processed by An Bord Pleanála and its failure to keep pace with the huge caseload generated by a frenetic level of development activity in recent years.
The perennial "backlog issue" is, of course, dealt with by the Comptroller and Auditor General in his report on the planning appeals system. But the report's real novelty lies in highlighting major discrepancies in the quality of planning decisions.
The CAG, Mr John Purcell, does not explain why, for example, the appeals board found it appropriate in the cases that came before it to overturn more than half of Carlow County Council's decisions to grant permission.
Nor does he elaborate on his finding that, in other cases appealed by third-party objectors, the board confirmed the original decisions made by local authorities without making any variations, at rates as low as 1 per cent for counties Cavan and Sligo.
What Mr Purcell deduces is that certain local authorities need planning re-education - and he says, rightly, that this should be taken up by An Bord Pleanála and the Department of the Environment.
An Taisce welcomed the report. "If we are serious about promoting quality of life," said its chairman, Mr Michael Smith, "quality not just quantity of development must be assessed" and the public should be involved in this debate.
The report highlights yet again that most appeals to An Bord Pleanála are made by developers rather than third-party objectors, with the national average rate of appeal of refusals at 29 per cent, while the rate of appeal of permissions is only 4.4 per cent.
Of that small proportion, only 5 per cent of the original local authority decisions are confirmed by the board without any variation, as Mr Smith noted. "In other words, An Bord Pleanála agrees the appeal was worthwhile in 95 per cent of cases".
Some feedback is clearly required for local authorities which may wonder why a high proportion of their decisions to grant permission are being overturned on appeal. But the fundamental need, as Mr Purcell suggests, is for quality benchmarks.