Hello An Bord Pleanála

"If the issue is not dealt with properly Village will organise protests highlighting ABP’s regressive approach" - Perfect :-) A nice little protest will highlight both ABP's and RTE/IT/Indo's arrogance in attempting to ignore these detailed materials documenting (alleged) corruption by ABP Deputy Chairman.

Bravo, this is public service journalism. Tragically many Irish people will refuse to acknowledge this as they're so repressed. And of course, the IT/Indo/RTE will tonight be desperately trying to deflect this as more SF "fake news". Make no mistake, they detest reporting on home affairs and many an IT editor's career has ended on those rocks.

But this is something for the everyman to savour for the weekend.... FFG will have to either (a) forfeit lots of goodwill to try to save Hyde or (b) let him be savaged in public and then try to save Simon C.

Always remember, they are laughing at us.

The IT now begin their "coverage" so that they can facilitate the cover-up. This article makes it sound like Hyde is voluntarily coming forward with this information. It also starts to establish that the wife is in the habit of using her maiden name without any attribution. This is the very definition of fake news. lol.

(The flabbergasting entitlement of that couple though! Both Dublin City Council and an ABP investigator required a reduction in size of the master bedroom. However they were able to escalate their house extension concerns to the highest authority in the land. His brother then led that meeting and summarily struck out the size restriction.)

So all of a sudden our caring FFG govmt is not satisfied with the level of litigation being taken against ABP. The ABP have lost 93% (37 out of 40) of all cases taken against them - wow! That is the very definition of gross incompetence. Now if you or I had this employment performance record we’d be fired immediately. But this is the Irish FFG govmt + civil service so let’s watch as they try to offer up Paul Hyde and leave as many others on ABP board in situ.

(For pure entertainment closely observe the IT in coming weeks desperately trying to appear to having "played a straight bat” on this. The IT clearly did not notice anything untoward when ABP had “only” lost 36 from 39 court cases. Perhaps they were waiting for the 37th tax funded failure but The Ditch beat them to the scoop.)

This story is the gift that keeps on giving...

More evidence of ABP bending over backwards to facilitate the build-to-rent overseas funds. The scummy pwoper-taaayyy developers talk about how these schemes bring "much needed product volume” to the market and their wanker banker friends will talk about “much needed liquidity”. Shamefully our politicians and media are also increasingly using this pseudo-consulting-speak. This is all just a way of avoiding the question: why does ABP not prioritise support for development of properties that citizens can buy?

Meanwhile ABP does find time to overrule objections so it can approve Stefan Hyde’s garage extension. Stefan is the brother of Paul Hyde, ABP deputy chairman. There should probably be a new thread speculating how a Cork guy, with a square-shaped head, ended up being called Stefan ;-)

"Of the 20 applications made by Eir across the country for which a recommendation of refusal was made by the planning inspector, Mr Hyde was involved in 19, every one of which was approved."

Hyde is consistently overruling his own inspectors. This means that either all the inspectors are incompetent or Hyde has different incentives. It also means ABP governance is so absent they don't notice or care. Having said that, they didn't seem to notice that they lose all their court cases either.

What a shameful situation for FFG, especially today when we've been hearing about record numbers of homeless.

More ABP insider dealing. They're not even trying that hard to hide it either, they must know there'll be no repercussions. The end is in sight with the coming election but it's going to be smash 'n grab by this lot all the way up to it :-)

Surprise, surprise. FFG are desperately trying to conjure up a reason as to why publication of the report would be against the public interest. LOL. Meanwhile the responsible Minister Darragh O’Brien (suspiciously another person with a square-shaped head!) has been busy up to tricks with the law for FFG.

Those IT Assoc. Editors are going to have to brush up their articles about the importance of trust - after all Irish citizens are the most "trusting" in the known universe ;-)

The (alleged) stories of "best practices" at ABP just keep coming...

Paul Hyde gone. Now let's see if FFG try to blame him for all ABP's (alleged) shortcomings - see list above. Surely the Chairman and rest of the organisation could not be so inadequate and dysfunctional that they were derailed by a single person!?!

Hopefully FFG, in their grace, will again decree that the whistleblower - aka public service journalists - will not face prosecution.

What a coincidence that the Remy Farrell investigation concludes just after the Dail summer recess begins #somuchcare #ffgwillsortouthousing #sortitoutforwhom?

Today we have ABP Chairman (Dave Walsh) in front of Public Accounts Committee answering to the crowd that are trying to introduce legislation that would make the ABP less accountable to the public. Meanwhile The Ditch has new info about the (alleged) tricks that Dave himself has been up to. If true then it's no wonder ABP has so many problems when its own Chairman does not know the regulations or considers them optional.

The Ditch also has a new article detailing (allegedly) how only two ABD board members, when 3 are mandated by legislation, decided on 26 planning cases at a single meeting. Look at how hard they are working for us ;-) #SFaredefinitelytoblame #letsarrangeaparadewithflags #somuchcare

Housing Minister Darragh O'Brien is toiling tirelessly on our behalf and has called in the AG to check that it's safe for us to see the report. Meanwhile - see below - it just goes on and on and on!

Did Cian maybe get a tip-off that our Housing Minister is soon to release a statement attempting to whitewash this issue??

Worded something like: "the review highlighted areas for improvement, which we welcome, but nothing that requires further investigation" [...] "housing continues to be an area of focus" [...] "ABP are diligently reviewing to ensure that their incredibly high ethical standards have always been upheld" [...] "ABP are proud to introduces even higher ethical standards" [...] "the government is satisfied that ABP team, including the ex-Dep. Chairman, are all gents" [...] "the Housing Minister is also a gent" [...]

The DPP's up again :-) God willing she will, again by her grace, determine that On The Ditch should not be prosecuted for making the public aware of what's been going on. LOL.

Nothing surprising about this at all...

So the Department of Housing has shown its hand! The "Action Plan for ABP" published yesterday specifically indicates that the OPR's findings "are not to be viewed as criticisms of past procedures or performance". So that's that then :-)

(It was widely known that the ABP Chairman's wife works for Department of Housing. No one was surprised then to see this official Government document single out her husband alone for commendation: "Steps have already been taken by the Chair of An Bord Pleanála to ensure that all Board members must now confirm..." )

MOD/ToS: thanks for keeping this open, can close now.

https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/cbdf3-action-plan-for-an-bord-pleanala/

IT covers the story of a (minor) criminal prosecution against ABP Deputy Chairman Paul Hyde. However they have nothing to say about all the other - far more extensive - going's on's at ABP led by their intrepid Chairman Dave 'Classics' Walsh. Also no headlines about the govmt last week publicly instructing the OPR that their "independent" investigation into ABP was not allowed to say anything bad.

It's not all bad news though, through the public service dutifully provided by ABP we have carefully maintained our beautiful country whilst still providing adequate housing for our citizens... Oh hang on... LOL

Ha ha, yes, we can always rely on the IT to "officially record" that Dave was a great lad altogether and that, indeed, we are indebted to his service.

Still this is a joyous day and so not going to mention again where Dave's wife works, his adjudications about $trillion companies on the road where he resides, the independent investigation that he commissioned, his square-shaped head or that he has a Classics degree :-)