Bord Pleanala has to look overseas for planning staff

Ireland is so short of professional planners that An Bord Pleanala's next recruitment campaign will target Australia and New Zealand in an effort to fill new posts. But the board admits the high cost of housing in Dublin is deterring potential employees.

One of the board's more recent recruits, a town planner from Britain, has been living in a caravan on the outskirts of the city since he was hired as a planning inspector some months ago. He flies home to visit his wife and children every couple of weeks.

The planner, who declined to be publicly identified because he found his situation "slightly embarrassing", is on a temporary contract with the appeals board.

Planning inspectors with An Bord Pleanala are on a salary scale ranging from £30,900 to £38,400. The higher figure is enough to secure a mortgage of £96,000, insufficient even for something as modest as an artisan's cottage.

Three planners from Britain are employed as planning inspectors by the board. Its secretary, Mr Diarmuid Collins, confirmed yesterday it would now be casting its net much wider in an effort to attract planners from overseas.

"We have offered posts to other planners from Britain, but one of the problems was the idea of relocating here on temporary contracts," Mr Collins said.

At present, An Bord Pleanala employs a total of 35 planning inspectors, but it will need to increase its overall staffing by some 25 per cent to cope with the additional workload generated by the 1999 Planning Act.

This Act, signed into law by the President, Mrs McAleese, last Monday after the Supreme Court ruled it was constitutional, transfers responsibility to the appeals board for decisions on compulsory purchase orders for housing, roads and motorways.

Most of An Bord Pleanala's recent recruits, including three executive planners from Dublin Corporation, have been "poached" from local authorities. Other planners are leaving for more lucrative jobs in the private sector.

"We now have just 32 planners in the city out of an approved staffing level of 55," said one senior corporation planner. He blamed the Government, pointing to low salary levels and the absence of a career structure.