[Phil Hogan]
Last Tuesday, during Leader’s Questions, Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams raised concerns about how Phil Hogan appointed a former technical director with RPS consulting engineers, Conall Boland, to the position of deputy chairman of An Bord Pleanála in May 2012, alleging that this position was never advertised.
Mr Boland was first appointed to An Bord Pleanála on January 1, 2007, and was then reappointed for a two-year term in 2011 until December 31, 2013. Since he was appointed deputy chairman in 2012, his position has been renewed until December 31, 2018.
In the Dáil on Tuesday, Mr Adams said:
“[Phil Hogan] appointed as deputy chairperson of An Bord Pleanála an individual who was the former technical director of RPS consulting engineers, a private company that framed a series of controversial projects which have come before An Bord Pleanála. The Minister also extended this person’s term of office. This individual voted to approve contentious projects on which RPS Group was a consultant, which had been rejected by An Bord Pleanála inspectors. These include an apartment development in Dún Laoghaire and a sewage treatment scheme in County Donegal. He also approved a controversial wind farm at Cullenagh, County Laois. These clearly raise questions of a conflict of interest. RPS Group consultants also advised EirGrid to install overhead pylons, and they were also among the consultants employed at a cost of €85 million by Uisce Éireann…”
The next day, Wednesday, Mr Adams returned to the matter during Leader’s Questions, and asked Mr Kenny:
“Does the Taoiseach agree that a situation whereby the deputy chairperson of An Bord Pleanála is overseeing planning applications drawn up by his former employees may represent a conflict of interest?”
Taoiseach Enda Kenny replied:
“I am not aware of a conflict of interest. I hope that answers the Deputy’s question – the answer is “No”. All of the positions on An Bord Pleanála were publicly advertised. The answer to that is “Yes”. That is clear.”
Mr Adams responded:
“This one was not.”
Yesterday, Sarah McInerney and Stephen O’Brien, in The Sunday Times, reported that the majority of Ireland’s MEPs are opposed to the nomination of Phil Hogan as European Commissioner and plan to campaign against him getting this position with Sinn Féin particularly focussing on the appointment of Conall Boland.
Readers may recall how last November the European Commission ordered Dublin
City Council to terminate its contract with RPS for client services and public relations at the Poolbeg incinerator after it described the contract as an “illegal situation”.
The contract cost around €30million even though it was originally estimated to be €8.3million.
Readers may also recall how RPS advised Dublin City Council on the Poolbeg incinerator project while John Tierney was Dublin City Manager. Mr Tierney is now the managing director of Irish Water and two former executives with RPS are now working for Irish Water.
Former managing director of RPS Jerry Grant is Irish Water’s head of asset management while former head of project communications at RPS, Elizabeth Arnett, is now head of communications and corporate services at Irish Water.
Readers may also be interested to note that Conall Boland also advised Dublin City Council on its plans for the Poolbeg incinerator and the procurement of the contractor for the project when he worked at RPS. According to an article in the Irish Times in 2006, Mr Boland was also involved in preparing the waste strategy for Dublin.
In November 2006, when it was announced that the then Fianna Fáil Environment Minister Dick Roche had appointed Mr Boland to An Bord Pleanála, the then Green Party chairman John Gormley raised concerns.
The Irish Times reported at the time:
His appointment to the planning board represents a “serious conflict of interest”, Green Party chairman John Gormley said last night. “The fact that the Minister would, at this stage, appoint somebody connected with the project to the board is deeply worrying. Even more worrying is the fact that Mr Boland seems to have been responsible for the most recent review of the Dublin regional waste management plan,” he said.
Mr Gormley said he did not question Mr Boland’s competence, but said the Minister had put Mr Boland in a “very uncomfortable position”.
An Bord Pleanála (Board members)
Leader’s Questions, via Kildarestreet.com, on Tuesday here and Wednesday here
Previously: Thicker Than Uisce
Photocall Ireland
so basically anyone with any relevant experience is a conflict of inters – much better to be a barman/terrorist like Gerry Adams, layabout dopefiend like Ming or whatever so that you are never accused of having relevant experience!
Steady on there screechy Fine Gael stooge. There’s all colouredy spit coming out of your mouth
Get a life.
The only thing controversial about these projects is that a few jumped up county Councillors object to them for political reasons
Why don’t you explain what is wrong with the sewage treatment scheme in Donegal that Jurry objects to? Gormley and the Greens want to keep the Poolbeg towers but object to the incinerator.
All this amounts to is a few lefty NIMBYs and dopey Greens who have SFA technical competence throwing mud at anyone who doesn’t share their luddite worldview
Both of you Virum and Hosanna are being extreme.
It is clear that this guy does have relevant experience for An Board Pleanala. It is also rather unfair to assume that an engineer is incapable of basic professional ethics. Nobody suggests that a solicitor or barrister who worked for a client cannot later go on and act on the other side or as a judge or as a regulator.
On the other side, there have been an awful lot of unanswered questions about RPS cosiness with DCC in recent times (that is not to suggest any wrongdoing necessarily) and when Hogan is involved it raises further questions.
Yeah, that’s true, but the Taoiseach just answering “no” to the question is disingenuous, of course it ‘may’ represent a conflict of interest (as Adams asks), which isn’t the same as saying it does.
It’s nice to see people get a second or third chance in life, but there is serious doubt that John Tierney or RPS would be given another major infrastructural project after the fiasco of the Poolbeg incinerator.
I mean hypothetically say you send someone to the shops with your bank card to buy some turf, they say it won’t cost more than €9 then they come back and without the turf and having spent €30, would you then turn around and ask them to get you a few a few hundred euro worth of bottled water, or would you find someone more reliable to do it? That’s the level of thinking you’re dealing with here, it makes no sense whatsoever unless you take into account political connections.
Who cares about right and wrong – you just stand your ground and defend your corner. Good man.
Gerry Adams was a barman?
some would say ‘barsteward’ was more appropriate.
Crowbarman
Are you a 12 year old jobsbridge ‘intern’ for the Fine Gael press office? Excellent and utterly relevant analysis of two members of our Dáil…
Phil Hogan doesn’t have any experience. He is a tool who has completely failed in his current role and has serious questions to answer over his integrity.
A bag of that layabout dopefiend stuff would probably make your mondays less angry than the stuff you were imbibing all weekend.
I agree disgraceful that terrorists like Adams and stoner layabouts like Flanagan (who have literally been involved in nothing else of note their entire lives) are given the time of day in our national politics, they should be like FG packed to the gills with hyper-intelligent, over-qualified, super genius, Garth Brooks obsessives.
Hail O’Duffy!
Aren’t we blessed on this little island to have such talented people who are qualified for every state appointment going?
Political connections aside and all…
I mean, no one gets appointed to positions any more because their #1 qualification is a political connection, do they?
Shure, didn’t Enda put a stop to all that?
A diagram of crossover would be helpful here. This is a tad confusing. I get the general idea though.
Phil Hogan is a bold boy. Lets send him to Europe! Makes sense.
I can’t stand Hogan. The mere sight of him riles me up. I can’t be the only one that he has this profound effect on..?
No
lets see – most of the mouthbreathers in the country hate him for one of the following reasons
1) charging for water like every other western country
2) sorting out the septic tanks which they used to hide their sewage – and which usually leaked into the groundwater.
3) because the Sindo told them to
which one are you?
Ha ha, we got ourselves an FG troll
He is incompetent. We should absolutely be charged for the processed water that we used. I am 100% for water charges (as a means to put a value on our second most valuable resource) but the manner in which Hogan went about it is LUDICROUS. He is a gombeen who seems completely incapable of grasping very simple concepts. Add to that the Irish Water debacle and you have proof positive that Phil Hogan should not be allowed anywhere near public office again, unless it is a dole office.
You forgot
4) The **** up with the household charge.
But that’s a couple of years ago. So it wouldn’t surprise me if you’ve forgotten about that one.
I support water charges and LPT but I still detest Hogan.
To me he gives evidence to those who would claim that there is no difference between FF & FG – ref. the way he stopped the planning inquiries. Many towns and villages around the country have been destroyed by poor planning and this fool is going to do nothing to rectify the situation.
Then there’s his dog whistle comments about traveller families.
Claims to be “Truly, Madly, Deeply European”. Sends them the lout, he can’t put anywhere, for a top job.
Sending Europe Hogan and Kevin Cardiff is the most Irish form of revenge.
I would LOVE if the EU shot down his nomination.
Surely there should be hearings here first in the Dail before we send these numpties abroad, like in the US Senate?
Kenny: “All of the positions on An Bord Pleanála were publicly advertised.”
It’s notable that certain positions which were advertised on behalf of Irish Water, including first interviews are now a year and a half later somehow vacant again. If there is any lesson to be learned from the north’s history it is that being publicly advertised means absolutely nothing if the job has been already gifted to someone else.
What are you suggesting here?
I’m not suggesting you are wrong, only that I am a bit too stupid to understand.
It is utterly fallacious to argue that we should charge for water or have a property tax because some other countries do. Why on earth is this considered to render the question open and shut?
When we were children, our parents would admonish us “If johnny put his hand in the fire, does that mean you should”. This same admonishment demolishes the notion.
Hogan has many questions to answer – such as why he stopped the investigation into planning office corruption when the dogs in the street know that it remains deeply corrupt.