Former An Bord Pleanála deputy chair pleads guilty to breaches of planning laws

Noel Baker

The former Deputy Chairman of An Bord Pleanála, Paul Hyde has pleaded guilty to two breaches of planning laws, in what a court heard was a “very serious” case.

Mr Hyde appeared at Skibbereen District Court where Judge James McNulty was told that he was pleading guilty to two breaches of Section 147 of the Planning and Development Act. One related to his failure to declare in 2015 his ownership of what the court heard was a plot of land of unknown but possibly significant strategic value in Cork City, and a 2018 failure to declare a number of properties which he still owned, but which by then had a receiver appointed to them.

Mr Hyde’s barrister, Paula McCarthy, said he had not made the declarations due to a misinterpretation made “in good faith” of the regulations and relevant codes of conduct, and that he had not gained financially from his failure to do so.

Ms McCarthy said Mr Hyde had in fact been affected detrimentally by the failures to make the declarations, and has been unemployed since stepping down from his role as Deputy Chair of ABP last July amid increased focus on him and his role.

Judge James McNulty heard that the maximum penalties open to the court on conviction was six months in prison and/or a fine up to €5,000, and that Mr Hyde had no previous convictions.

Mr Hyde, with an address at Castlefields, Baltimore, Co Cork, had cooperated with the Garda investigation, the court was told, attending voluntarily for interviews, as well as cooperating with a previous investigation into various planning decisions that had been conducted by Senior Counsel Remy Farrell.

Ms McCarthy said that given the circumstances and accepting it was a “big ask”, she was appealing for leniency and that a conviction not be recorded against her client.

Judge McNulty said that any suggestion that no conviction be recorded or that the matter be dealt with by way of the Probation Act “would be optimistic”, adding: “This matter could not be dealt with in that way. This is a very serious matter.”

Judge McNulty, who heard that this appears to be the first such case of its kind in Ireland, said he would reflect on the matter and would deliver the court’s verdict in Bandon District Court this Friday at 10.30am.

Mr Hyde was present in court and left shortly afterwards in a waiting car without making any comment.