Local authority managers have called on heritage body An Taisce to recall its “fundamentally flawed” report into planning among councils.
The “presentation of indicators and the reporting of statistics” are “flawed and require further major revisions”, County and City Managers’ Association chairman Hubert Kearns said.
The report, State of the Nation, a Review of Ireland’s Planning System 2000-2011, identified “the worst councils in Ireland’s planning system” using eight indicators to rank the 34 city and county councils.
The association said the report does not justify the indicators which were used, and does not refer to existing performance indicators for local authorities.
The use of statistics and the method of ranking local authorities “is lacking any statistical rigour”.
It said An Taisce had used statistics in a “blind fashion” without “appropriate quantitative analysis”.
The indicators used in the report included overzoning, percentage of vacant housing stock and water quality.