County council inquiry details not to be disclosed

The results of an inquiry into allegations of "nixers" by local authority staff will not be published by the Minister for the Environment and Local Government, Mr Dempsey, The Irish Times has been told.

Officers in a number of local authorities have refused to sign statements confirming that they comply with the regulations on private work because of a dispute over the wording, it has also been learned. SIPTU says the issue has been resolved "in most cases".

Mr Frank O'Malley, secretary of the union's local authority professional officers' branch, said in some cases staff had been asked to sign statements which went outside the bounds of the current regulations.

Officers were prepared, on legal advice, to sign statements confirming they were aware of the relevant regulations, he said. Other forms of wording could be open to different interpretations. "In any case, the signing of a document is superfluous because they are bound by the regulations whether they sign anything or not."

County and city managers have been carrying out checks in each local authority since Roscommon County Council announced last month that two officials had been suspended and a third had resigned following an investigation into planning irregularities. None of the officials worked in the planning section.

A spokesman for the Minister, who requested that the checks be carried out, said the results would not be published because of the likelihood that they would contain personal information. It is expected Mr Dempsey will make a statement when the investigations are completed in April.

Roscommon is not the only council likely to have something significant to report. Galway, Waterford, Kilkenny, Sligo and Kerry county councils have all confirmed carrying out investigations into allegations against staff members.

Sligo County Council is the only one to have concluded an investigation without finding evidence of wrongdoing; in Waterford, Kilkenny and Galway, officials were either warned or disciplined while inquiries in Kerry were continuing.

The Irish Times has established that two local authority officials in Kilkenny were the subject of a complaint to the Department of the Environment by the Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland (RIAI) in September 1997.

One of these was Mr Joe Gannon, the senior executive engineer with Kilkenny Corporation, who was, in the past, on a panel of house valuers given to its clients by the Bank of Ireland.

The director of the institute, Mr John Graby, said he would not comment on specific cases, but the RIAI had passed on information "on this type of matter" to a number of local authorities over the years. "It does appear as if this is a relatively widespread activity and it needs to be investigated at national level."

A Department spokesman said in such cases the information was passed on to the relevant county manager, who decided on the appropriate action. Kilkenny County Council said on Friday it would be unable to answer queries on the matter until today.

Local authority officers are prohibited from engaging in private activities incompatible with their official roles under the Local Government (Officers) Regulations of 1984. Last month's letter from the Department was not the first time county and city managers had to be reminded of the rules.

In 1996, the Department circulated a letter to managers reminding them that, under 1994 regulations, plans and drawings accompanying planning applications must contain the name and address of the person who prepared them.

In its letter last month, the Department said: "It was suggested (in 1996) that the names of the persons on all the plans and drawings submitted with planning applications be, as a matter of routine, checked against the names of the officers of the local authority. It is now considered that more thorough checks are necessary."

Kilkenny County Council has said it will examine a planning file drawn to its attention by The Irish Times, relating to a city-centre development of six houses and four apartments, which went through the planning process in 1996. There is no name on the plans and drawings for the development, carried out by Vamere Ltd at Archer's Field.

The council has refused to comment on its inquiries, but did say in a statement to The Irish Times last month that "a number of matters have come to the attention of the county manager", Mr Paddy Donnelly, since the checks began.

cdooley@irish-times.ie