Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien says he hopes to bring a memo to government on the Mulcahy report by the end of 2023.
A report into alleged planning corruption in Donegal remains “under consideration” despite it being completed in 2017.
“This matter is extremely complex and requires very careful consideration,” Minister O’Brien told Sinn Féin Housing Spokesperson Deputy Eoin Ó Broi.
Minister O’Brien, who is regularly queried on the report, said this week that “The Report is a scoping report and as such it does not make findings as to the truth or otherwise of allegations that have been made by an individual against named persons.”
He said he is still considering the report and the extensive legal advices received from the Attorney General’s office, “given that the Report details unproven allegations against named persons”.
Senior counsel Rory Mulcahy was appointed in 2015 to conduct a review into allegations by whistleblower Gerard Convie that there were severe irregularities in the local council’s planning department in the early 2000s.
Mr Convie had challenged the findings of an internal review into his allegations, which questioned his motives, in the High Court. In 2013, the Department of Environment had to withdraw the review, overturn the findings, and apologise to Mr Convie.
Mr Convie had presented a dossier of 20 sample cases to the Government in 2010, prompting then Green Party environment minister, John Gormley, to launch an independent review.
That process was abandoned in 2011 with the change of government and his successor, Phil Hogan, ordered an internal review. That was completed in 2012 and concluded there was no evidence of irregularities and questioned Mr Convie’s motive in making the claims.
Mr Mulcahy delivered his report in June 2017, but it has yet to be published.
Minister O’Brien said that his Department is engaging with various stakeholders on the matter, namely the Attorney Generals Office and the Office of the Planning Regulator.
He said: “Where access to the report has been withheld by my Department from Access to Information on the Environment requests or Freedom of Information requests, the decisions by both the Commissioner for Environmental Information (OCE-103174-W9G4J2 (Legacy Reference CEI-18-0019)) of 13 February 2019 and the Information Commissioner (OIC-59426-Q8D7T8) of 27 February 2020, were taken into account.
“It should be noted that in each of these cases, both the Commissioner for Environmental Information and the Information Commissioner decided not to grant access to the report. Both decisions are publicly available on those bodies’ websites. Further, the Office of the Information Commissioner decision stated ‘placing the details concerned in the public domain would significantly breach the rights to privacy of identifiable individuals’.”
