Sir, - The recent Bacon Report identifies professional planner staff shortages in local authorities as one of the key constraints on an adequate housing supply. It also identifies that planning authorities are having difficulty keeping existing staff.
Despite welcome suggestions as to how additional numbers can be achieved, the report makes no proposals as to how existing experienced staff can be retained. The failure of both local authority management and central government in the past to develop the role of planning and utilise it as a key component of economic development is at the heart of the problem.
In this context, the recent unilateral decision by county managers in Dublin and the city manager in Cork to abolish the position of county/city planner constitutes a downgrading of the role of professional planners in four of the top five local authorities in the state. This is being done in the name of better local government.
Surely, at a time when the creation and maintenance of senior planning posts in local authorities is essential, the proposed abolition of these key posts lacks any logic whatsoever! - Yours, etc.
Dara Larkin, MIPI, Silchester Park, Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin.