Sir, – Jack Horgan-Jones reports that the backlog of cases before An Bord Pleanála (ABP) includes 27,000 much-needed homes awaiting a decision (“Number of planning cases dealt with by An Bord Pleanála drops by half”, News, May 15th). He quotes a spokeswoman for ABP: “The departure of board members, including scheduled departures, sharply reduced the overall decision-making capacity at board level”.
Why would “scheduled departures” have that effect? Surely a statutory body with responsibility for planning can plan for planned retirements or other planned departures? – Yours, etc,
PAT O’BRIEN,
Dublin 6.