Mattie McGrath: Calls to Disband Bord Pranala After Interim Report
Mattie McGrath criticised the interim report on Bord Pranala, saying the public has lost faith in the board and calling for it to be disbanded and reconstructed. He referenced yesterday's IBRC report and said alleged irregularities, overturned inspector recommendations and running costs undermine trust.
Public confidence and verdict on Bord Pranala
McGrath told the debate that villages, communities and ordinary people have no faith in Bord Pranala. He described the lack of trust as endemic and said the board's credibility is gone.
Inspectors' recommendations overturned
He outlined instances where a planning inspector would investigate on good faith, recommend refusal or approval, and the board would then overturn that recommendation. He characterised this pattern as a long-standing problem that damages local communities and developments.
Costs, jobs and quangos
McGrath noted the interim report's figure that Bord Pranala costs "a million a year" to run and criticised what he called "jobs for the buys" and the proliferation of paid quangos. He contrasted that with former voluntary boards he had served on and raised the issue in the context of austerity.
Call to disband and reconstruct
He said the board must be disbanded and replaced by a new reconstructed body in which people can have confidence. He addressed the minister's likely reactions and urged a proper solution going forward.
We publish thousands of recordings to make Irish politics transparent and resistant to manipulation. Spotted an error? Report it — together we are building a reliable archive of Irish politics.
Go raibh maith agat. Go raibh maith agat. Yes, I think this debate is timely. It's interesting that we have both debates, yesterday and today, yesterday the IBRC report, and today we have this interim report, this report on Bord Pranala. The public have lost faith in Bord Pranala. Villages, communities, you know, ordinary people have no faith in Bord Pranala. This has been going on for a long time, where people would make objections, and I'm not anybody who supports Syrian objectives around, but you know my objections. And there might be quite a number of them. And then a planning inspector will come down on good faith, and do his thorough report, and go back to the board and recommend it be refused, or the opposite, and the board say no, overturn it. So, it's just been outlined as costing a million a year to run this board. It's jobs for the buys, never better. And normally there are any fall buys, as well, to make it even better, to be honest. And I came from one of those great institutions, as it used to be, Fado, Fado. And I did mention here about surf and daz and other stuff, and washing the dirty linen, and disconnection with this already. There's a lot of it to be washed, and there's a lot of alleged irregularities in Bord Pranala. As I said, basically, when an inspector goes down on good faith, and does a report, and the board reject it. We can have two men, or two persons, two men mainly, I think they're all men, if I know, maybe I stand corrected in that, and they can decide the fate of a community, the fate of a development. And this is something badly wrong in the state of Denmark with Bord Pranala. And I, too, believe that it must be disbanded. It's so endemic. The wrath is so bad in it that the insiders and the whole belief and the trust in it is gone. And you can twist your head, minister, or shake your head, or whatever. But I firmly believe, and I firmly am asking, that it should be a proper, new, reconstructed board that people have faith on. And we have the salaries. And it's time of austerity. Why do they need that kind of money to go on it? What happened to the voluntary boards? Are there any voluntary boards anymore? I used to be on a number when I was allowed to be on them. But where are all the boards we have now in Quangos? With big pay, big money, and big everything else. So it's rotten, as I said, and it must be disbanded, and people must have confidence in it. Going forward. Thank you.
Thank you for downloading 🙏
If you publish this material on social media, we would be very grateful if you tagged VideoParliament. It helps us reach more people and keep building a transparent archive of Irish politics.
