Paul Hyde’s low profile is at odds with the power he wields in the high-stakes world of planning. As deputy chairman of An Bord Pleanála, he can make or break major building projects that come before the planning appeals body. But now he faces his own moment of truth.
Hyde is battling allegations of impropriety in his personal declarations of interests that led Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien to seek a senior counsel’s examination of the claims. After years behind the scenes at the planning board with little or no public visibility, he is at the centre of a gathering storm with potentially big implications for the quasi-judicial body. He has denied any conflict of interests in decision-making, insisting such claims were groundless. His defence will soon be tested in forensic detail by senior counsel Remy Farrell.
“Any allegations of this nature, be they related to individuals or the process, must be taken very seriously,” O’Brien told the Dáil this week, saying he wants a focused examination of the claims. “I do not want it to drag on.”
Already it seems likely that the barrister will be asked to scrutinise what happened to some of Hyde’s own property investments and two High Court actions he and co-defendants faced, which were ultimately discontinued before being heard in court. One such action centred on a property auctioned by a bank-appointed receiver, raising questions as to whether Hyde told the planning board of any receiverships. Another court action was initiated by a division of US investment giant Cerberus, meaning the deputy head of the State planning body with critical functions was being pursued legally for years for reasons unknown by one of Ireland’s biggest institutional holders of property loans.
Hyde has also acknowledged not declaring his quarter share in a company which has property near the site of a housing proposal in Cork that was refused permission in March by An Bord Pleanála. He insisted, however, that there was no need to declare it because the company H20 Property Holdings – in which his architect father Stephen owns three-quarters of the shares – was dormant with a “zero balance sheet” and had no beneficial interest in the outcome of any decision in the area. The directors of Eichsfeld Ltd, the company whose application under fast-track rules was turned down, did not return calls.
Internal examination
An Bord Pleanála itself has said little, beyond noting Hyde’s denials while pledging co-operation with the Minister’s process. “The board is also reviewing, and is seeking legal advice in respect of, certain issues arising from these matters,” it said this week. The planning board gave no further detail. But claims made by online news outlet the Ditch and Village magazine are known to have triggered an internal examination of hundreds of Hyde’s planning decisions and statutory declarations. The aim, according to an informed source, was to determine whether any legal recommendations are needed.
The planning board’s chairman Dave Walsh has separately said the body was reviewing its code of conduct, as promised four years ago in a 2018-2023 strategic plan. “The board will, in that context, be assessing whether any areas in relation to these matters needs to be clarified and/or strengthened,” he told planning regulator Niall Cussen in a letter on Wednesday. Cussen had sought confirmation that the planning board has mechanisms in place for the statutory declarations that board members must make. The regulator will conduct a scheduled review next year of its systems and procedures.
But that is in the future. Right now the focus is on Farrell. Although the barrister’s terms of reference are still not finalised, O’Brien insists his work will be “time-bound”. The process is being driven by the Minister’s office. Hyde, who is 49, remains in situ at the planning board and continues in his role as deputy chairman.
An Bord Pleanála has declined to specify how many planning cases he is scrutinising at present. Neither was there any reply from Hyde personally when The Irish Times asked the planning body whether he had any comment on any of the issues raised.
He is an architect by training, with a Trinity College Dublin degree and a master’s degree in planning from University College Cork. He also studied corporate governance at Harvard Business School. His planning board biography describes more than two decades’ work in roles including practice manager, architect, planner, development consultant and project manager. Previously, he was managing partner of the Hyde Partnership, a design and planning practice in which his father also worked.
He grew up in a Cork family heavily involved in sailing and became friendly with Simon Coveney. In an 18-month period in about 2005 he co-owned a racing yacht, Dark Angel, with Coveney, then well-established in Fine Gael politics and on his way to the Cabinet seat he has now held for more than a decade.
“I have known Paul Hyde for a long time in a personal capacity,” the Minister for Foreign Affairs said, without revealing anything about the extent of their friendship these days. “I have no knowledge of matters at An Bord Pleanála and it would not be appropriate to comment further.”
After he became minister, Coveney appointed his former sailing partner to the board of the Irish Marine Institute in 2012. Hyde’s next big State post came two years later when then minister for the environment Phil Hogan appointed him to the planning board as an ordinary board member. He became deputy chairman in January 2019 after Walsh, the planning board chairman, recommended his appointment to then minister for housing Eoghan Murphy.
Walsh had taken office three months previously, joining the planning board after serving as assistant secretary at the Department of Housing. The department said Hyde was proposed “on the basis of his qualifications and experience”, adding that Murphy appointed him “having regard to this recommendation”. A person familiar with the thinking then said the incoming deputy chairman was considered a “solid guy”.
A measure of Hyde’s growing clout was that he was already at that time chairman of the planning board’s strategic housing developments (SHD) division, placing him at the heart of some of the board’s most controversial work.
The SHD fast-track planning regime, introduced when Coveney was minister for housing, was supposed to speed up delivery of badly-needed housing, a top government priority before the pandemic and even more so after it. But many projects were delayed by objectors taking judicial review cases in the High Court against approvals. The SHD laws, for schemes with more than 100 residential homes or more than 200 student dwellings, have been heavily criticised for cutting local councils from the approval process, with no appeal option before court. They are now being phased out, but many applications are still in process.
‘An acquired taste’
An Bord Pleanála did not reply to the question of whether there any implications for SHD applications currently before the board because of the questions raised in relation to Hyde.
As for the deputy chairman himself, two professional figures in the Cork business community said Hyde was well known among developers in the city, not least because of his pre-eminent planning board role but also for his work before joining the planning authority.
“I believe he’s an acquired taste,” said another person, who is familiar with the view of certain planners who know Hyde. “He’s good at his job but some people just don’t get on with him. He rubs them up the wrong way.” Citing another view of Hyde, the person said he was considered “decent” but known to ruffle some of those he encounters. “It’s more a personality-type thing than decision-making.”
The legal obligations of the planning board members are clear enough. Under the Planning and Development Act of 2000 they are required to declare each year any estate or interest in any land apart from the family home. Any business, profession or occupation of dealing in or developing land must also be declared, be it personally or by a company.
Any pecuniary or beneficial interest in any planning board appeal or question to be determined by it must be disclosed to the board, and the member must not take part in the discussion or consideration of the matter.
Among many other conditions, the law also states that a person “shall cease” to be a member of the planning board if he or she “makes a composition or arrangement with creditors”. A composition is a deal between a debtor and creditors in which the creditors agree to accept a proportion of what is owed to them in full settlement.
In addition, its code of conduct requires the disclosure of “any membership of a pecuniary nature, and any financial interest in companies, partnerships or other bodies”. Special procedures also apply “in respect of their involvement/membership where there could be, or could be seen to be, a conflict of interest in respect of any particular case”.
Hyde declared eight Cork properties and one in Limerick in the years from 2014 to 2017, no small tally for someone who then was still in his early 40s. Four properties were at Pope’s Hill in Cork city; one was at Maryborough Green, Douglas; another at Watergold, Douglas; another at Castlefield, Baltimore; and another at Brookfield Hall, Castletroy, Limerick. He also declared a site with planning for four houses at Rathduff, Co Cork – describing this in 2017 as a quarter share in the site. In 2018, he declared only the Watergold property and declared no interests in the following years.
Neither the performance nor the ultimate out-turn from such investments is clear from public records.
Still, Land Registry records show that the Ulster Bank charges from 2008 on the four Pope’s Hill properties were cancelled in 2017 in favour of Promontoria (Oyster) Ltd, a fund ultimately owned by US group Cerberus that bought huge volumes of property loans from Ulster Bank after the property and banking crash, many of them non-performing loans.
Banks and funds never publicly discuss individual debtors, and representatives for Ulster Bank and Cerberus declined to say whether Promontoria bought only non-performing loans from the bank or a mixture, or performing and non-performing loans.
Legal action
Separate High Court records list Hyde among four defendants in a legal action taken in 2017 by Promontoria (Aran) Ltd, another Cerberus entity. Affidavits were served in 2018 and 2019 as part of this action, which was discontinued only in July 2021 without any orders of judgments being made. Cerberus declined to comment on the nature of the action or the reasons for it.
Hyde was also one of three defendants in another legal action taken in 2019 by a Cork company, Castleventry Ltd, which also was discontinued last July without any orders of judgments being made.
Castleventry has major property interests. Companies Office records show that its ultimate shareholder is Patrick Hegarty, a businessman with an address in Malta who is a former director of Castleventry and of the large construction group PJ Hegarty. Another former Castleventry director is veteran Cork solicitor Frank O’Flynn, who has been in practice for more than half a century. Castleventry’s company secretary is Colman Cronin, financial director of PJ Hegarty and himself a Castleventry director since December 2019.
PJ Hegarty said it had no relationship with Castleventry, adding that it was neither a subsidiary nor a sister company of the construction group. Castleventry’s legal representative said the same, noting that PJ Hegarty had nothing with the property transaction at issue in the case.
“The property [that was] the subject matter of the proceedings was bought by our client Castleventry Limited at auction at arm’s length from a receiver appointed by a bank to sell the property in question,” the legal representative said. “In the course of the purchase our client had to issue proceedings against the vendor of the property to ensure that the sale was completed in a timely manner.”
Asked whether Hyde ever told the planning board – in any notifications separate to his statutory asset declarations – of the legal actions taken against him or identified the litigants, a spokesman indicated he did not. The statutory filings setting out his investments “constitute the complete set of declarations made by him over the period concerned so there’s no further comment beyond that”. Asked separately whether the deputy chairman ever informed the planning board of any bank ever appointing a receiver to any property he owned, the planning board again said his statutory filings “are the complete set of declarations”.
Untangling the obligations on the deputy chairman and his interests past and present now falls to Farrell. While this mammoth task is under way, Hyde can still determine the fate of proposed developments that come before An Bord Pleanála. But now more than ever, it is his own fate that is on the line.