The chairman of Roscommon County Council, Mr Tom Crosby, said he believed the practice of local authority employees drawing up planning applications was "widespread around the country" and not unique to Roscommon.
He said he believed Roscommon had shown the way in carrying out the investigation as the practice could obviously fuel public fears of a conflict of interest. Other local authorities could follow its example.
"I have no doubt that it is widespread and going on for years. There are many rules that are not fully implemented, and people can get innocently caught up because they accept it is a done thing," Mr Crosby said.
He said he was not justifying what the officials had done as it was clearly against the regulations.
"But I would think that if most local authorities had similar investigations they would find similar problems," he added.
He said he believed the planning applications under investigation had only concerned single-dwelling developments and he did not believe any large projects were in question.
Mr Crosby, an Independent, said he did not believe people had reason to be concerned about the relevant applications.
"The process is tighter than that. Each application has to go through various stages and is open to scrutiny."
A Progressive Democrats councillor, Mr Hugh Lynn, expressed similar views.
He said while the practice the officials had been involved in could not be justified, it did not constitute corruption.
"There was a conflict of interest but that is not corruption. There is no question of people taking money to pass planning applications or anything like that."
He also believed the same practice happened in other counties.
"There should be immense confidence in the planning system in Roscommon now because a situation had been developing and it has been stopped. It is good to see this was the last action of the county manager and he has put the house in order before he left."
In Roscommon generally there was sympathy for the individuals concerned, with people saying they had been penalised for doing something many others had done for years.
People who worked with the county manager, Mr Eddie Sheehy, praised him for his efficiency but described him as "a stickler for rules and regulations".