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The publication of the Mahon report has seen renewed calls for investigations into the planning matters of local authorities by An Taisce and others. In 2009 An Taisce called for the investigation of Dublin City Council’s planning record and subsequently it became one of seven local authorities under investigation by former minister for the environment John Gormley, this initiative being later reduced to an in-house investigated by his successor, Phil Hogan.
In the case of Dublin City Council, the issue at play was the extraordinary number of its major planning decisions subsequently overturned or substantially changed on appeal. Its appalling planning record was the subject of a dossier complaint by An Taisce in 2009, detailing 23 cases where its decisions clearly conflicted with the City Development Plan and/or Architectural Heritage Guidelines.
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