A senior officer with Kilkenny Corporation who carried out private work has been promoted.
Mr Joe Gannon, the corporation's senior executive engineer, will become project co-ordinator with Kilkenny County Council for the National Roads Programme in the county.
Mr Gannon was at the centre of controversy in January when it emerged that during the 1990s he had been on panels of house valuers supplied by the Bank of Ireland and TSB to customers seeking mortgages.
Kilkenny County Council said he discontinued such work after a complaint was made to the county manager, Mr P.J. Donnelly, by a member of the public.
In a report to the Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, in April, Mr Donnelly said it had been established that two officers had in the past been engaged in private practice. One had left the employment of the council and a letter of warning was issued to the other. This is understood to be Mr Gannon.
Mr Gannon, as the corporation's most senior planning officer, dealt with a number of planning applications submitted by the Bank of Ireland when he was on the bank's panel of valuers. The bank denied in January there was any conflict of interest. Planning applications were submitted by staff at the bank's head office who would not have been aware of Mr Gannon's arrangement in Kilkenny, a spokesman said.
Kilkenny County Council also said there was no conflict of interest. "As the matter did not involve the officer's official duties, and the officer undertook not to undertake any work for any financial institution in the future, the manager considered that this was a satisfactory resolution."
