Paul Hyde appeal put back to next month

THE appeal by former An Bord Pleanála deputy chairman Paul Hyde against the jail sentence he received in June over breaches of planning laws will be heard next month.

Mr Hyde, 50, had pleaded guilty in June to two offences contrary to Section 147 of the Planning and Development Act 2000, with district court judge James McNulty hearing that one small parcel of land in Cork city, known as a ‘ransom strip’, had not been declared by Mr Hyde in 2015, and that in 2018 he had then failed to declare properties which he still owned but to which receivers had been appointed.

Mr Hyde, of Castlefields, Baltimore, Co Cork, had stepped down from his position with the planning board last year, having first been appointed as a member in September 2014.

At sentencing in Bandon District Court at the end of June, Judge McNulty had said the “mid-range” sentences of two months were appropriate and proportionate in the case, and “if those in authority are lax and careless and non-compliant, what will those in the ranks do?”.

In June, the judge had also said that Mr Hyde had not been charged with anything relating to any potential conflict of interest and that there had been no loss to the State and no material gain for the accused. However, he also said there had been a breach of trust.

Mr Hyde’s legal team had immediately lodged an appeal against the sentence and the matter came before Judge Helen Boyle in the Circuit Court in Skibbereen yesterday.

Mr Hyde, dressed in a navy suit, white shirt, and blue tie, was in court where his solicitor, Colette McCarthy, said it had been agreed the matter could be adjourned. State solicitor Jerry Healy said that, by consent, the appeal would be heard in Cork on November 17.

The case was one of a number impacted by the withdrawal of services by criminal barristers over the issue of fees.